Bitter Sweet Flavours

Pineapple Tarts for CNY 2012

2012-02-02T17:45:00.004+08:00

The roads were rough and harsh as 'busy' had made the top excuse of all time.

So much to do with so little time before I return to somewhere I dread being. It's hard to imagine how much has changed. I could still remember when I felt the excitement, just like yesterday..

It is more than late to greet, but overall, I hope you had a great time with your loved ones during this festive season.

I made these pineapple tarts on the night before CNY itself. Yes, after the reunion dinner. It was a rush, and so my advice would be not to do them at the last minute, as they take a week to yield the so-delicate texture. It's the same recipe every year, and how time flies. It's been 3 years.

Happy Dragon Year!

Red Bean Sweet Soup, a perfectionist, I'm not.

2011-11-06T21:13:00.009+08:00

Perfection was never a part of me in whatever I do, wherever I go.

There's too much running through my head at one time, sometimes I take one step as I go. I will have a few pictures in mind of how things would turn out, not putting too much hopes into what should be achieved by the end of the day.

The saying of "Shoot for the moon, even if you missed, you'll land among the stars", not quite applicable..
Preparing myself for the worst, and letting fear take over me to keep me moving. That was the person I was brought up to be.

After much of cakes and coffee.. I decided upon a better dessert. My all time favourite sweet soup. It takes time.. to boil into this perfect consistency. But how is perfection being measured? On to a point where you felt things turned out better than what you had in mind?
It's too subjective.
Some people like it cold, but I prefer hot. Like boiling hot where you can still take a few moments to take a few snaps, and blow it off the spoon..

..and how a simple fried rice I made for lunch today reminds me of the taste of home.

Roasted Asparagus wrapped with Ham and Mint Sauce

2011-11-03T07:59:00.005+08:00

When it comes to groceries, I am convinced that many women enjoy shopping alone. At least, I was one of them. Taking the first step into the neighborhood supermarket, falling into my little own world, over and over again. Amazes me. The way I can stare at something that has been on the same shelf for so long and I look at it as if I've never seen it there before. That's not true.

The fact is when I stop to look, I'm not really staring. It's just to recall the many things I've seen and learnt from the tv, magazines or any recipe I came across from the net. Do you feel the exact feeling I felt?

Apart from those times, I know what I had to get from the store. I never kept a shopping list. If something was missing, that would be an excuse to shop, again. Or in better ways, I'm giving freedom to improvise and things to inspire me.

Roasted Asparagus wrapped with Ham and Mint Dressing

2 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and halved
2-4 slices of Ham (or 4 slices of bacon)
2 cloves of garlic, pounded
some olive oil

dressing:
2 tsp lemon juice
4 Tbsp mayonnaise
a few mint leaves, finely chopped
some toasted almond flakes

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175C. Wrap asparagus and garlic with a slice of ham. You might need a thread in this case but I didn't.
2. Sprinkle enough olive oil just to make it shiny (or if you're using bacon you can and should skip the olive oil). Bake for 10-12 mins, keeping close watch at the 10th.
3. In the meantime, prepare dressing just by mixing all together except almond flakes.
4. Serve with sprinkles of toasted almonds.

Like every other day, self checkout counter would be my first pick. Despite the fact that I always have trouble with machines. Two bunch of asparagus never appeared on my pending receipt. The shopkeeper lady came to the rescue and herself, gave up trying. In Australia, it only meant that I wouldn't have to pay for it. In Malaysia, I believe I would have to return it to the store until they fix the glitch or stand there for the next hour, letting the queue grow as long as patience can hold.

Maybe I shouldn't be so negative. Things might have changed by now. For the better, I hope.

Eggs Benedict with Avocado, on a Saturday morning

2011-10-29T15:37:00.010+08:00

There were times when I turn on the TV to catch a cook show, and I watched it countless times, very sure I would never make them. Well.. Don't say it too early.

So what have pushed me to make this?

Eggs Benedict is surely a very popular breakfast food here. Hollandaise sauce, I never fancied much. It seems like someone has been very fond and welcoming to new food. New flavours that have not been tasted or tried before. I would say it's as rich as it can get, buttery.. reminds me so much of oozing custards flowing out of steamed chinese custard buns, I have been missing so much. Only that in this case, it's savory.

Hollandaise Sauce Recipe
(served 2 -for me)

1 egg yolk
1 tsp dairy cream ♥
1 tsp lemon juice

40g of butter, diced ♥

pinch of salt and black pepper

Method:
1) Place yolk and cream on a heatproof bowl on top of a barely simmering pot of water.
2) Whisk until thick and creamy.
3) Gradually add in butter, continue whisking until sauce thickens (see note).
4) Remove from heat and add in lemon juice.

Notes:
♥ I substituted cream with non-flavoured full fat yogurt.
♥ I only manage to use 30g of butter and it was thick enough.
♥ This recipe made a stingy portion for two. Feel free to double/triple this recipe.

Mind the uneven surface of my badly poached eggs and the messy appeal. I threw the extra left over egg white from the hollandaise into the poached egg. Used lemon juice instead of vinegar to poach egg and I find that lemon juice will never yield poached eggs just as pretty. Couldn't help it because I dislike the taste of vinegar with eggs.

I would still laugh about how I went shopping in the dark for the sourdough.. and very rude shop keepers who couldn't wait to get off work. As much as I can understand, working on a Friday night isn't as fun.

A yummy, satisfying Saturday breakfast... or brunch (by the time I was done with dish washing..)

Strawberry Tiramisu

2011-10-24T15:05:00.011+08:00

If you could have strawberries,.. I'd see a million things running through your head now.

Mum would say, just eat them fresh!

That could have happened since spring began, I've been swallowing strawberries. They cost A$5 for a kilo, hey? I'd pick the less pretty ones and throw them away. Now that wouldn't have came from me but I've seen friends throwing away strawberries alright. It was dirt cheap.

Alright, I'd stop getting in your faces about the strawberries. I know I sound jakun to you right now. I never got a chance to, they were overly priced and I can go on an on telling you how much I dislike Korean strawberries, they looked fake, polished, and coated with wax. Can you imagine eating make up?

strawberry tiramisu

pikelets with strawberries and cream

The crowd at the food festival was astonishing. Me, falling into my little own world joined the kid's queue for some desserts. They cost like A$5 each when I could get a kilo of strawberries!

When it comes to food, I'm just more than willing to empty my pocket. Yet, proud to say that I am that sort of person.

Strawberry Tiramisu
(makes a 7" round pan / 8 wine glasses)

250g mascarpone cheese
170g dairy whipping cream, whipped
1 1/2 Tbsp castor sugar

1 pack of sponge fingers (24 pieces)

filling:
200g strawberries, diced (very small cubes)
1-2 Tbsp of sugar
1tsp cornflour
50ml water

to garnish:
chocolate shavings
cocoa powder
strawberries

Method:

1) Beat mascarpone cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in whipped cream.
2) Cook strawberries with sugar under small heat until strawberries fall apart (not crushed and disappeared, you'd still like bits and chunks in there).
3) Combine cornflour with water and pour into strawberry mixture. Cook till slurry is formed. Set aside to cool.
4) With my wine glasses, I filled the bottom layer with strawberry filling, topped with sponge fingers, with lots of fresh strawberries on the side of the glass.
5) Place the mascarpone cheese mixture into a piping bag pushing strawberries against the glass. Placed another layer of strawberry filling, followed by sponge fingers.
6) Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

I don't quite remember how many layers of topping, filling I placed, it really depends on your glass/pan. I'm guessing if you would have used a round pan it would be best to surround the whole filling with sponge fingers as mascarpone cheese might not be able to hold it's shape because I didn't use gelatin in this recipe.

I made this a couple of times with different combinations. Chocolate, Baileys with espresso with strawberries and I love them all.

Japanese Curry, as we move on.

2011-10-20T21:19:00.005+08:00

Yes, I am very aware of what I have left behind. What would the reason be to cook, if there wasn't someone who looks forward to dinner as excited as the cook herself.

As I begin to type, I realized how much I've forgotten how to blog. It took me so long to express myself, to find the right tabs to click on..

... and eventually I never got there.. but.. nevermind that. I'll let the picture do the talking.

...and again food from a box.

Chicken Curry with Roti Canai

2011-08-15T07:50:00.004+08:00

You bet.

I cheated.

They were all store bought from the asian grocery store. I made nothing from scratch.

I conveniently grabbed a packet of frozen Roti Canai and a pack of chicken curry paste.

The colour is due to my perseverance to put in skim milk instead of santan (coconut milk).

Good Times and Bad Times

2011-08-12T07:08:00.003+08:00

The day I left my blog hanging is when I was too busy having fun.

So is it a bad sign that I have turned to my blog today?.. well, perhaps.

We meet new people everyday in our lives and sometimes, they'd love to create a little drama to pull you down.

Apart from those, here are some food I managed to make. I really do love cooking a little bit more now, if someone could bugger off and let me have the kitchen all to myself...

Mum came to Brissy to visit me, and she brought me 10 packs of Klang Bak Kut Teh!! How great's that????

Pan Fried Salmon with Yogurt Sauce, satisfying.

2011-04-12T13:22:00.003+08:00

A very filling and satisfying dinner for me. I can't have watercress raw, I just had to cook it.

Apart from lettuce and spinach leaves, don't think I've been very accepting to the other salad leaves yet.

Well, the salmon here is definitely better than the ones we get in Malaysia!

Will make it for my mum when she comes here.. (again)

absolutely nothing.

2011-04-09T12:09:00.003+08:00

How does it feel like to sit right beside the window at the average cafe I pass by every single day. Just sit, have my regular cafe latte with the most ordinary banana bread, watch the busiest people hurrying to grab a hold of their day before it ends. Is like watching myself in the mirror, cause that's how my day went right before my eyes, as I could not catch hold of time. It's just like asking, when do you take time to chew, before you swallow.

Time passes way to quickly over here, sometimes I fee like I could barely breathe.

He asked me, why you'd think of future so much when you can't even control tomorrow? Yet all of us gear up for as far as we dare think of.

I want so many things in life, have I just been too greedy?There's just so much that I enjoy doing, or am I being too fickle of which should make me a happier person?

I can't decide between two complete opposites.

An answer I am sure of that my heart has told me so. Yet if I already know, to go with emotions I might regret so.

Like my best friend said "If you gave it a go, fall, and regret, that's okay, because you've been there. But if you've never grabbed your chance and let it go, you'll never know, and that regret, would be definite in the future."

Are you the one who would live today for today, and worry of tomorrow, tomorrow?

Dark Fruit Cake, a little more impact.

2011-03-09T06:53:00.007+08:00

This fruitcake left the sweetest memories, I served them for the first time during Christmas. Mum request this for her birthday, she wanted nothing but the fruitcake I made last Christmas. Cakes I bake, can never be overly sweet which is not how a traditional fruit cake would probably be. I made them to suit our taste buds, and this recipe was used over and over again by my god sister who fell in love at her first bite!

Biting into scattered pecans at the top were the best.
I'm submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #5 : Fruity March 2011 hosted by Jess@Bakericious.
Link to the recipe here.

After getting off the plane, I've been chasing after time to hunt for furniture, clean the last bits of my new place, do more shopping for food, started my first week of class till now I've finally settled down for more torture Uni should do me.
I would not have time to bake here, but there is more leftovers from Malaysia to be posted soon.

Chocolate Strawberry Yogurt Cake spells another birthday!

2011-02-10T01:05:00.015+08:00

Looking out from the window, seeing how people gave their best to their daughters and sons. How envious I was. The made believe they would do anything for. Hiding their true self to show their best examples. Building up walls, blocking the negativity among the society, in denial much was, protecting their child.

I cried and I yelled, why was I the one punished when mistakes weren't mine.
Why was I the sacrifice to see the uglier things in life.
I guess I was never brought up the same way they were.

This side of the story was remain untold.
It was imperfection which made one content. It was the uglier things which makes one stronger. It was the evil person you claimed whom loves you most.

Standing here, proud to say, my life was real and some things should be remained as fairy tales.
Eventually growing out of naivety.
Doing everything with will, love and passion.
She was more than definite of my decisions, the path I chose, and things I wanted.

If I wanted a daughter like me, I doubt I could ever be as good as she.

I'm happy not cause she praised, but when she's (occasionally) proud of whom she have raised today.
Sometimes I do feel that I'm sorry I couldn't take her pain away.
Maybe making myself a better person should be the only way.
To my dearest Mum, Happy Birthday.
If there was one thing I'd to thank her for it should be her trust in me.

Coincidentally, fell on the 7th day of Chinese New Year (人日), which is everyone's birthday.
so... Happy Birthday!

Passion Fruit Chiffon, you'd ask for sour.

2011-02-09T11:14:00.006+08:00

I'd love buying passion fruits, when they look round, unripe. Then after a week, it would turn wrinkly and very sweet. I loved the slight sourish taste in this chiffon cake. I fulfilled my god sister's request to this recipe. Chiffon cakes are addictive to make (and to eat)!

Passion Fruit Chiffon Cake Recipe
(9"/22cm tube pan)

4 yolks
50g sugar
45g canola oil
55g passion fruit pulp
20g water

100g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

4 whites
40g sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

1) Whisk together egg yolks and 50g sugar until pale.
2) Gradually add in oil, passion fruit pulp and water whisking them all until combined.
3) Sift in flour and baking powder. Whisk until a slightly thick batter is formed.
4) With an electric beater, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in 40g of sugar and whisk till stiff peaks are formed.
5) Gently fold in egg white mixture into egg yolk batter in 3 seperate additions until well combined.
6) Pour batter into a 9"/22cm chiffon tube pan. Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 40-45mins.
7) Invert pan immediately to cool completely before unmold.

Notes:
♥ I used about 75-80g of passion fruit pulp (2 passion fruits) WITHOUT omitting water.
♥ Cake flour is substituted by 90g plain flour and 10g corn flour
♥ The cake was baked 30mins in the oven, uncovered and the last 15mins covered with an aluminum to avoid burning the top.

Never ask me to pick out the seeds of a passion fruit. That would be a donkey job. Plus lazy people like me wouldn't mind biting into the seeds.

Mandarin Orange Yogurt Cupcakes, perhaps not.

2011-02-08T15:09:00.009+08:00

Mandarin oranges left very sweet memories for me this year. Normally, it wouldn't win my attention, but this year it did. Maybe it was because of the awful 'honey balls' I bought in Aussie, tasted like noting else but sour. Ever felt cheated by their names? I know they used to advertise frozen 'shark fin' in supermarkets and then when I went to check it out they were vegetarian.
That's flour, alright.

I never baked with mandarin oranges before, and they're overflowing my fruit baskets. My heroic knife was so sharp, it must have cut through the seeds and some chunk of mandarin oranges bittered the whole cupcake. The tiny details you had it at the back of your head, knowing you'd spoil the whole main event, yet you just did it recklessly. Why should I be forgiven?

Mandarin Orange Yogurt Cupcake
(adapted from Happy Home Baking)

225g all purpose flour
25g corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)

70g unsalted butter
180g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (270g/250ml) low fat plain yogurt
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large mandarin orange, skinned, seeds removed, chunked.

Method:
1) Sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2) With an electric mixer beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3) Add in eggs one at a time, beat until incorporated.
4) Add in yogurt, milk and vanilla, mix until well blended.
5) Spoon sifted ingredients in gradually while beating on low speed. Fold in chunks of mandarin oranges.
6) Spoon batter into preffered cupcake casses.
7) Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 25-30mins.

Regardless of how moist and good the cake was, the bitterness would just slash through, some may grab another, some would not have the courage to go on. If I were to do this again, could I have given more attention to the details, or would I have done the same mistakes I did again?
Would you give these bitter cupcakes another try?

Happy (Bunny) Lunar New Year '11

2011-02-03T23:50:00.008+08:00

Unlike the olden times (as I was told), most only get a whole chicken on the dinner table during reunion dinner on the eve of Lunar New Year. Now that we take them for granted, reunion dinner felt as if it was just another usual gathering with relatives to me. The difference was that the house was being light up with very unusual chinese new year jokes by my dear uncles.
A reason why they could crack up the same jokes, or make up many different ones after so many years should remain a mystery to me. Heh heh heh...

We would wake up for the Loh Hon Zhai (Vegetarian Dish) with a bowl of white rice. As we get older, the bowl rice bowl gets smaller too. Most of us would go on a vegan fast for half a day -where we break the fast at 12pm, and I wouldn't call it half a day anymore because we woke up at 10ish, by the time we're done with washing up and Loh Hon Zai for brunch, its 12!

They start unsealing each and every cookie containers and chomping on nuts and cookies. I ate the most mandarin oranges this year, where previously it did not catch my attention at all. The baby ones were very very sweet, I wouldn't dare to count how much of those I've consumed. And the best part were the pineapple tarts!! They were the most exciting ones, needed countless times of refill, I don't think they would survive tomorrow.

The best compliments went to the coffee almond cookies, the ~~kids~~ teens love.
Chocolate almond cookies have lost the battle after coffee's existance. The kids have grown up to love coffee like me. It's either that or as what my god sister said, the cocoa powder I used did not give a distinct flavour, therefore with the same recipe it didn't end up as good as hers (could be a probability).
Aunts, or the moms loved the lemon poppy seed cookies, I shall consider taking orders for next year!
Pineapple tarts, are for people like me and my god sister. And for more cute kids who enjoys the soft pastry with sweet jam in it!
And all that, overpowers the popularity of crispy coconut biscuits. Heh heh..

Apart from the ones I made, there were pretty much store bought ones too, but most of them aren't progressing much unless they were the fried entrees.

Last but not least, Mum and I made almond florentines, like every year. They seem to replace the making-kuih kapit-tradition, because we would sit infront of the oven every year to make these for CNY in bulk. It's a very exhausting job, yet we can't seem to miss it or else it wouldn't feel like pre-CNY.

Wishing you all the best of health, luck and prosperity for this coming bunny year!

祝大家新年快乐! 恭喜发才!

Pineapple Tarts, the pefect one for me.

2011-02-01T17:22:00.007+08:00

Chinese New Year will never be complete without Pineapple Tarts. How could we miss serving these on the table? They were essential for every Lunar New Year, as pineapples are known as "Ong Lai" (in hokkien), and 'ong' meant prosperous.

There are many shapes to it, one the very common would be open faced tarts. I didn't make them as this recipe would not hold the structure of open face tarts. The pastry would probably fall apart and yet I loved how crumbly, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, and a little less milky from the norms. Would you sacrifice the appearance for a pastry like this?
I surely would.
At the same time, I didn't like the idea of open face tarts as the jam might just dry out being exposed to direct heat from baking.

My mum bought a very good pineapple tart press just for me to make these. I made double of this recipe and yield 5 small containers of them. I got the pineapples again from pasar borong, this time I cooked it on a wok alternating between high and medium heat, because I was impatient. I finished cooking in about 90mins, as the pineapples had so much juice for it, I wonder where all of that came from.

Pineapple Jam Recipe
(adapted from previous)

2kg pineapples, chunked (about 4 medium size Morris Pineapples)
2 barks of cinnamon stick
270-300g brown sugar

Method:

1) Blend the pineapples and place them in a wok.
2) Cook on high heat, stirring occasionally until the juice reduces. Turn down to medium heat when juice starts to splatter.
3) Cook for approximately 75mins to 90mins until it becomes jam consistency. Turn off heat, transfer to a heat proof bowl and let to cool before storing.

Notes:
♥ taste as you go, add sugar until desired sweetness.
♥ didn't like the core of the pineapples, will omit them the next time.
♥ use very unripe pineapples (sourish, which still have texture to it).
♥ store refridgerated until ready to use.
♥ yields 1kg of pineapple jam.

I used the same recipe as last year with a tweak to make things easier. I hope you have found the perfect recipe for yourselves too :)

Pineapple Tart Recipe
(amendments to previous recipe)

310g plain flour
40g corn flour

250g salted butter
40g icing sugar
50g milk powder
10g custard powder
1 egg yolk

1 beaten egg yolk with some water, for egg wash

500g pineapple jam

Method:

1) Place all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
2) Rub in butter with fingers until it resemble breadcrumbs.
3) Lightly pat to form a dough. Divide dough into two, wrap with a clingwrap and chill for 30mins.
4) Put dough into pineapple roll pastry press, pipe dough out with thumbs into a long strip.
5) Place some pineapple jam at one end of the pastry (about a little more than half a teaspoon for me, rolled up into a log shape), roll the pastry around like a swiss roll, enough to enclose the jam filling.
6) Line them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Brush the top with egg wash.
7) Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 20mins, or until the surface turns golden brown.
8) Let it cool on baking tray before storing.

Notes:
♥ I doubled the recipe and yield 5 small containers, and finished 1kg of pineapple jam filling.
♥ This recipe will not hold open face tarts!

The portion of pastry and pineapple tarts were just nice. Just a little leftover pastry, which I suspect was because Mum was being over generous with the jam! She must have wanted to 'sau gong' (finish her job) fast.
I couldn't have done this alone.. I'm glad she was there to help me till midnight although she had to wake up early (as usual) to work on the next day! No doubt, my mum's the best!! :D

Coffee Almond Cookies and Chocolate Almond Cookies, which to prefer?

2011-02-01T00:19:00.005+08:00

I thought the coffee almond recipe looked really tempting to me from my recipe book, and decided to give it a try. It was very crunchy and had a very nice coffee flavour to it. My god sis offered me some of her chocolate almond cookies when I went over, and I thought it tasted better. Very addictive, I couldn't stop at.. (I lost count), maybe half the tub. She said she'll make somemore, and laughed about how I'm there to get recipes from her again.

So I made some of the chocolate almond too, and when mum and I compared it to the coffee almond, we both agreed that we both loved the coffee better. At that point I felt as if I was so kiasu :P We don't just love it, I made two big tubs of it and one is gone, completely gone. Maybe I didn't make the chocolate almond as good as my god sis or we both just loved the fact that these cookies had strong coffee aroma to it, special in a way, I shall leave it to you to judge.

My god sis said she will come and taste my cookies because she insist hers were the best. Her chocolate almond were the best seller, which was why I posted this recipe so late, so she could sell hers off first. See, I stole her recipes up for post, she's so going to kill me.

Coffee Almond Cookies Recipe
(adapted from famous cuisine)

200g salted butter
185g castor sugar
1 egg
2 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tsp water
350g plain flour
200g almond flakes

Method:

1) Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Stir in egg, mix well.
2) Dissolve coffee powder in hot water, add into butter mixture, beat till combined.
3) Sift in flour then mix in almond flakes until it forms a dough.
4) Place clingwrap over a 7 x 7 inch square pan, overflowing at the sides.
5) Drop cookie dough onto the pan with clingwrap. Spread evenly with hands/spatula.
6) Wrap cookie dough up. Using a rolling pin, roll on the top of the dough until it is even.
7) Chill the cookie dough overnight, or freeze for 2 hours.
8) Slice the dough into logs and chop (yes, chop with a very sharp knife quickly while the dough is still hard and don't blink or the dough will fall apart) into 3mm thickness.
9) Lay cookie dough onto baking sheets leaving spaces in between.
10) Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 18-20mins or until golden brown.
11) Stand cookies on the pan for 2-3mins, then let to cool completely on a wirerack before storing.

Notes:
♥ Bake until you can see the almond slices in the cookie starts to turn lightly brown.
♥ I used 3tsp of instant coffee powder in 1Tbsp of hot water.
♥ Place dough back into the fridge as soon as it starts to soften.

Chocolate Almond Cookies
(credits to my god sister, she modified it to the perfect cookie recipe)

250g salted butter
180g icing sugar
1 egg
350g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1/4tsp baking powder
50g cooking chocolate, melted
150g almond flakes

Method:
1) Cream butter and icing sugar together until combined.
2) Add in egg, mix till combined.
3) Sift in flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.
4) Stir in melted chocolate and almond flakes. Use hands to form a dough.
5) Lay cling wrap over a 7 x 7 inch baking tray, overflowing at the sides.
6) Drop the dough onto the baking tray. Wrap it up with the overflowing sides of the clingwrap.
7) Pat the dough down, use a rolling pin to spread it evenly.
8) Chill the dough overnight or freeze for 2 hours.
9) Slice the dough into logs and chop (yes, chop with a very sharp knife quickly while the dough is still hard and try not to blink, the dough will fall apart) into 3mm thickness.
9) Lay cookie dough onto baking sheets leaving spaces in between.
10) Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 18-20mins or until golden brown.
11) Stand cookies on the pan for 2-3mins, then let to cool completely on a wirerack before storing.

Notes:
♥ Bake until you can see the almond slices in the cookie starts to turn lightly brown.
♥ Stir vigrously when adding in melted chocolate as chocolate may solidify.
♥ Place dough back into the fridge as soon as it starts to soften.
♥ I just used a wooden spoon as there was no creaming needed for this recipe.

These cookies are ridiculously simple to make, all you need is a bowl and a wooden spoon. (and some patience.. *meditates*)

Crispy Coconut Biscuits, again!

2011-01-28T17:21:00.005+08:00

Yes!! I made them again. I guess the shape gets better with practice. Although I know its really simple but what gets on my nerves is standing there shaping cookies to the same size, which was why I never really made cookies apart from the festive season. No, I don't even like slicing hard rock cookie dough either because I can't get the same thickness! Explains why I was never a art and craft person. Hehehe.. So don't ask me why there's a long ruler is sitting in the kitchen. That's mine!

Difference from the first time is... I decided to be less generous with the dessicated coconut and obeyed the recipe. Being too generous will yeild a harder cookie. You wouldn't want to miss the sugar coating too! You might not notice it from the photos but it's shiny...

I'm submitting this post to "j3ss kitch3n" hosting Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011).

Steamed Coconut Custard Layer Cake, a layer for a layer.

2011-01-27T15:36:00.011+08:00

One thing people fear most of me is that I'm yeast crazy. I love anything that spells bread or buns whether they are steamed or baked. I can have them for breakfast, lunch, tea and even dinner if you would allow. Bread just smells best when you open up the clingwrap from the bowl where the baby has grown so much!

If you'd remember the opera cake, I sacrificed a dozen of eggs and half a dozen of leftover yolks. Should try something new instead of kek lapis again. So its one opera layer cake, for another layer cake (or it should be layered pau?).

Steamed Coconut Custard Layer Cake
(slightly modified from Lily's Wai Sek Hong)

For cake/pau:

160g plain flour
20g corn flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp instant yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
125ml milk

1 Tbsp butter

For coconut custard filling:

7 egg yolks
7 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp custard powder
190ml milk
75g (1 cup) dessicated coconut

Method:

1) Start by preparing the custard filling, or you can do it while the dough is proofing which is entirely up to you. Whisk yolks in a medium saucepan until thick. Add in brown sugar, custard powder and milk. Turn on medium heat and whisk until mixture combines.
2) When the mixture starts to thicken, remove from heat and transfer into a bowl. Mix in dessicated coconut.
3) For the dough, sprinkle yeast into warm milk. Add in salt and sugar.
4) Sift together plain flour, corn flour and baking powder. Knead yeast mixture with flour until a smooth dough is formed.
5) Knead in butter until combined.
6) Place it on a bowl, seal with a clingwrap and let dough proof for 40-45mins or until the dough doubles in size.
7) Grease a deep 7inch square baking pan and line with parchment paper.
8) Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Lightly dust workplace with flour and work with the first dough. Roll it into 7inch square, as the dough is almost paper thin it will break while scrapping it up from the workplace, just lay the dough onto the parchment paper on the baking pan, and spread evenly. Get a few bits and pieces from the thicker ends to patch up any holes when necessary.
9) Divide custard filling into 3 equal portions. With a fork, spread filling onto the dough, pressing it down lightly.
10) Continue with the rest of the dough alternating with custard filling.
11) Brush the top with oil and let it rest for 40-45mins covered with a damp towel.
12) Steam at high heat for 35mins.
13) Remove from mould immediately and let it cool slightly on a wirerack before slicing.

The cake is best eaten on the day it's made, or reheated the next.

I guess if working moms have leisure times during CNY, should try this out :P
I personally prefer creamier custard without dessicated coconut.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies, Mum insist.

2011-01-26T01:06:00.004+08:00

Mum insist that I made these cookies for Chinese New Year after tasting her friend's. There wasn't much of the recipe when I browsed through it. It was just a basic butter cookie recipe. While I made this today, I walked to and fro to check my email whether I have misread or copied the recipe wrongly. There were no eggs. I guess that could have been the difference between a normal butter cookie recipe and this.

This cookie is light, crispy and fragile (and cute). Poppy seeds does nothing to the flavour, I guess this cookie could be the one to neutralize all those pineapple tarts, filthy rich chocolate, peanut cookies and what so ever that will be on the table during CNY. A cookie like this tastes great only if you used a good quality butter, which I did. I actually buy butter and flour in bulk now, and it scares me too.
How often would you get yourself a shopping cart in the ingredient store, grab 2kgs of butter and 5kgs of flour.. 5kg of almonds and god knows what goes in next when it all comes to settle with magic cards (not mine ofcourse).
"The sound of dong dong chiang, is the sound of money falling out from the wallet."
Now you know.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies Recipe
(recipe from Aunt Vivian)

225g butter, softened
110g caster sugar
275g plain flour
2 lemon zest
2 Tbsp poppy seeds

Method:

1) Cream butter and sugar, beat till light and fluffy.
2) Add lemon zest, poppy seed and sifted flour. Mix until combined.
3) Roll into small balls (sized of a 20cent coin), place onto baking sheet. Flatten with a slightly damped spoon or a fork dipped in water.
4) Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 13-15min or until lightly brown.
5) Let cookies stand in baking tray for 2-3mins.
6) Transfer cookies onto a wire rack with a spatula or knife (cookies should be very fragile at this point), let it cook completely before storing.

Mum said she thinks the one she tasted was like this too. I hope it's something close to what Aunt Vivian made because I have never even seen those cookies before. All I had was an email from Mum with this recipe.

Apple Cake

2011-01-25T00:41:00.007+08:00

It's an apple cake, I made it twice. Never blogged about the first because I thought it looked too hideous, and yet my god sister loves it. Apparently, it was a recipe she was looking for. A cake which lays somewhere between a butter cake and a sponge. Less greasy, light, soft and fluffy.
Another very casual cake and apples, one fruit I'd die without.

I just realized I haven't started any CNY cookie baking, and am behind schedule considering the amount and varieties I planned to do. Haven't been feeling well since the last week after happilly consuming a cup of milk, which is very unlikely for me because I was never a dairy person. I guess it does not like me too. We came into terms that we shouldn't meet each other as often now. It has kept me in bed for two days at least! One reason why I haven't been able to bake.

Apple Cake
(makes one 8inch square / two 8x4inch loaves)

100g butter
150g brown sugar
2 egg
1 tsp vanilla

240g (2 cups) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

120ml milk

2 small granny smith apple, sliced

Method:
1) Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2) Beat in eggs one at a time. Add in vanilla, beat until combined.
3) Sift in dry ingredients, beat at low speed.
4) Add in milk and mix until combined.
5) Pour batter into a lined 8x8inch square pan or two 8x4inch loaf pans.
6) Top with sliced apples and sprinkle the top with some castor sugar.
7) Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 40mins(for square pan)/ 30mins (for loaf pan).
8) Remove from pan and let to cool on a wire rack.

One cake you would love to eat warm..

Banana Chiffon

2011-01-18T11:29:00.009+08:00

A very casual cake has to be chiffon. They were never enough. Soft, light, pillowy, I just loved making them. I guess the hardest part for me has to be the waiting. The wet batter takes a long time to cook (well, 45mins is long for me), and I can't unmould it till it's completely cooled! Which would take hours, and normally I'd bake this at night so I could snap photos in the morning.

I made two different banana cakes, as I had lots of overripe bananas. Mum preferred the chiffon and brought them to work. I presume it was good because she reminded me to send her the recipe by email every single day after that. I mean, who writes the recipe right away??
I normally take quite a long time, one thing I like to do,... procrastinate.

This recipe was taken from somewhere... I just can't remember. A sign of me getting old. Tell me if you do (.. or if this recipe belongs to you)..

If there's one cake I'd bake again, it would be this banana chiffon. What I like about it was the amount of banana it has, still the batter wasn't heavy and dense, it was light and fluffy. The best part is it uses the same amount of egg whites and yolks so I don't have to crack my head figuring what to do with leftovers or throw anything into the bin.

Banana Chiffon
(8"/20cm tube pan)

3 egg whites
65g sugar
10g corn flour

3 egg yolks
90g cake flour
50g canola oil
30g water / milk
130g banana, mashed
140g banana, chunks

Method:

1. Beat egg yolks with a hand whisk until pale and foamy.
2. Sieve in cake flour, whisk until combined.
3. Add in mashed banana, oil, water, followed by banana chunks. Fold in to mix.
4. With an electric beater, whisk egg whites until foamy.
5. Add in sugar and corn flour, continue whisking until stiff peaks are formed.
6. Fold egg white mixture into the egg yolk batter very gently by 3 separate additions.
7. Pour batter into tube pan, lightly tap the pan on the table top to remove trapped air bubbles.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 30mins.
9. The cake should turn brown by then, cover it with an aluminium foil and continue to bake for another 15mins.
10. Invert pan immediately on a wire rack and let it cool completely before unmould.

Very excited to see the banana chunks floating in the cake!

Opera Cake stacks up courage.

2011-01-13T16:16:00.009+08:00

If there was one thing I had promised myself to bake for the longest time, it would have been an opera cake. I've been constantly talking about it, never brave enough to bake and assemble a cake like this. Not being very skillful in decorating cakes which was why I never really played with fondant, it really does test my patience. I could spend hours baking kek lapis but spreading layers of cream on a cake, decorating with ganache intimidates me.

I've never quite tasted an opera cake until Swee San made some for us during a very recent bloggers meeting. For the first time, surprising to say, I love the coffee buttercream and that thick thick ganache. The buttercream was silky smooth and melts in your mouth right away, I can't help but to lick the spoon clean while I was making it! It has got to be the best part of the entire cake!

Baking the joconde (almond sponge) layer has got to be the hardest part for me. I overwhipped the egg whites the first time and spent a dozen eggs trying to make things right!
The cake didn't take as long as I expected. All the baking, assembling, plus washing and cleaning could have only took me 2 hours plus to finish.

Opera Cake Recipe
(adapted from Choco Paris)

Joconde

50g icing sugar
20g plain flour
75g ground almond
3 eggs
15g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 egg whites
1 Tbsp caster sugar

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 220C.
2) Sift together icing sugar and plain flour. Add in ground almond.
3) Whisk whole eggs until ribbon stage (thick and slightly pale). Gradually whisk in sifted ingredients and ground almond. Fold in melted butter.
4) In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Add in sugar and whisk until stiff peak is obtained.
5) Gently fold in 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk batter.
6) Fold in the rest of the egg whites into the egg yolk batter.
7) Spread batter evenly into a 8 x 12inches (20 x 30cm) shallow baking pan lined with parchment paper.
8) Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until golden and springy when touched. Loosen the edges with a knife and carefully turn out onto a wire rack covered with a sheet of parchment paper. Allow to cool.

Chocolate Ganache

200g superior-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
120ml milk
30ml whipping cream
80ml whipping cream (added at the very end, for the top ganache layer)
50g unsalted butter, softened

Method:
1) Place finely chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside.
2) Bring milk and 30ml cream to a boil. Pour the hot liquid onto the chocolate.
3) Wait 30 seconds, then add the butter and mix until smooth. Let cool until a spreadable consistency is obtained.

Coffee syrup

90ml water
1 ½ tablespoon sugar
1 ½ tablespoon instant coffee

Method:

1) Place sugar and water in a pan and stir until dissolved.
2) Bring to a boil and add coffee.

Butter cream

50g caster sugar
3 tsp water
1 egg white
1 Tbsp instant coffee
100g unsalted butter, softened

Method:

1) Place sugar and water in a heavy skillet and make a sugar syrup (stir until sugar is completely dissolved then boil, without stirring, until syrup reaches soft-ball stage, between 116 and 118 degrees C (214 – 244 degrees F).
2) Beat the egg whites until soft peaks are obtained. Continue beating while incorporating the hot syrup. Beat until mixture is cold.
3) Dissolve instant coffee in 1 teaspoon of boiling water, cool and add to butter.
4) Add one half of the egg-white mixture and beat well, then gently fold in the remainder until well combined.

Assemble:

1) Using a sharp knife, divide the sponge into three equal sections and carefully peel off parchment paper from sections. Each should be 10 x 20 cm (4 x 8 inches).
2) Soak the first section with one-third of the coffee syrup, then spread over it half of the butter cream. Place the next section of sponge on top, then soak with coffee syrup and spread with half of the ganache.
3) Place the last section on top, soak with remaining syrup and spread with the rest of the butter cream, taking care to smooth the surface.
4) Chill until butter cream firmly set.
5) Melt the rest of the ganache over a pan of very hot water. Bring the remaining cream (80ml) to the boiling point and incorporate into ganache.
6) Allow to cool until a smooth, spreadable consistency is obtained and spread over top of cake.

Always being very indecisive, not knowing whether or not to do something because I fear. My best friend would say, "If you never risk, you'll never find out. And you might end up with much awful regret."

I guess in anything you do, and if it has already been decided, might as well make it right :)

So this was my second birthday cake. I'm happy with it although the sponge was still a little tough, and the layers weren't very neat. I should hope it gets better with practice!

Chocolate Banana Cake Kisses Teen Goodbye!

2011-01-12T11:38:00.009+08:00

I've been told that when they were young, they'd always pray and wish to get out of your teenage life. When twenty strikes, it flies right before your eyes. In your thirties, it would take a blink till number four haunts you.
My birthday becomes very convenient when I have regulars every Saturday. Plus, my mum LOVES cooking so much and I'm sure putting off the usual Saturday pot-luck saving them the trouble might make them even happier people, so why not?
I'm killing some huge amount of birds for you with one stone, hows that sound, people?

The dish to finish first was Hokkien Mee my Mum makes best. I never got to see how she made them, because I would be the one frying the Mee Hoon for her, and dash off to take photos of the rest of the food while she makes Hokkien Mee.
Then I've made some potato salad with homemade mayonnaise. I let them finish it before I gave them my mayo recipe and my aunt looked at me like "are you serious?", surprised with the amount of oil in it. Hey, it's called mayo for a reason.
Gotcha!
That's why I would say.. eat in moderation. Yet thanks for finishing up my potato salad I truly appreciate the support!
Mum also made Red Bean Sweet Soup (Hong Dou Shui) with dried lemon peels! Yesssssss.. I've been craving for this.

Last but not least, how can I forget the star of the event. A big fat humongous turkey! You know what, the turkey was the reason for the party. Without it, I don't think I'd even have one. Mum was wondering when she should make the turkey after she bought it and she just had to make me a birthday. So were we celebrating the turkey or my birthday again, Mum?

Chocolate Banana Cake Recipe
(makes one 8/9" round cake)

Almond Sponge:
5 egg whites
120g sugar
a pinch of salt

5 egg yolks

90g plain flour
10g cornflour
20g cocoa powder

50g ground almond

2-3 large sized bananas, sliced

(the forgotten) Rum Syrup:
10g of sugar
90ml water
2 Tbsp Rum

Chocolate Cream:
200g dairy whipping cream, whipped
50g dark chocolate, chopped
25g milk

Chocolate Ganache:
175g dark chocolate, chopped
150g dairy whipping cream
15g butter
1/2 Tbsp Honey

Method:

Almond Sponge:
1) Sift plain flour, cornflour and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
2) With an electric beater, whisk egg whites with high speed until foamy. Add in sugar and salt, continue to whisk until stiff peaks are formed.
3) Beat egg yolks until pale and foamy. Add into egg white mixture and whisk in low speed until combined.
4) Fold in sifted ingredients gently without losing much of its volume.
5) Fold in ground almonds until incorporated.
6) Pour into greased and paper lined 8/9-inch round mould.
7) Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 30-35mins.
8) Remove cake from oven and unmould immediately. Invert the cake to cool on a wire rack.

(the forgotten) Rum Syrup:
1) Place sugar and water into a saucepan. Bring it to a simmer to dissolve sugar.
2) Turn off heat, adding in rum.

Chocolate Cream:
1) Bring a pot of water to boil. Place chocolate and milk in a heatproof bowl.
2) Place bowl on top of the simmering pot of water, whisking until chocolate melts completely. The heatproof bowl should not touch the simmering water as the chocolate should be melted by the steam.
3) Leave to cool when chocolate has entirely melted.
4) Fold into whipped cream.

Chocolate Ganache:
1) Cook whipping cream and honey on medium heat until mixture boils.
2) Add into chopped chocolate, whisking until chocolate melts completely.
3) Add butter and mix until well combined.
4) Leave to cool until it reaches a spreadable consistency.

Assemble:
1) Slice the cake into 3 horizontally.
2) Place the first layer of cake onto a plate. Brush the top with rum syrup.
3) Spread a thin layer of cream onto the cake. Top with sliced bananas. Then spread cream onto the banana to cover it up.
4) Place a layer of cake on top of the cream and repeat steps (2) and (3).
5) Place tha last layer of cake. Spread cream on the top and sides of the cake. Chill for 30mins.
6) Pour ganache on top of the cake and leave to chill for 2hours or overnight to set.

Note:
♥ I already halved the chocolate ganache recipe so you wouldn't have trouble with too much leftovers.
♥ I used an 8-inch springform pan for this recipe.
♥ Coffee would definitely be an alternative if rum is not desired.
♥ I drizzle sliced banana with lemon juice to avoid change in colour.

I had lots of leftover ganache ended up in the sink. There was quite alot of it. No, I don't drink chocolate ganache. I know someone would be waiting for it but I'm not planning on a murder before Chinese New Year :)

About the birthday cake... Hmmm.. It wasn't good. The cake was dry, and I wouldn't blame it on the recipe. It was suppose to be moisten with syrup which I had planned to but I got so distracted. I only remembered it after I poured cream between the layers. Oh well. I promised myself I'd make this again, and remember to do the syrup too!
My first attempt on chocolate banana cake was a more simpler version and I should say it was more successful than this time around.
I had to make two for the huge crowd. One candle on each, and they sang me two birthday songs but I only had one wish. One would be enough for a very content girl like me. I've got everything, and my wish would be to hold on to it.

I truly appreciate the phone call in the am-s wishing me happy birthday. Although I'm not sure of what I mumbled on the phone. Thanks for calling, dear :)

Lemon Lavender Shortbread and a Chai story

2011-01-10T19:57:00.014+08:00

Shortbreads, would always give me a picture of those little rectangular shaped cookies with many cute holes in it. These cookies were gifts for Xmas and the New Year, thinking back it's been ten days since the fireworks were set up. Some may ask, if you'd rather move forward or backward. I would say, I'd wish time could stop right here. I'm feeling content with what I have, yet God would still give me some good surprises once in awhile.

My first chai tea was at the organic market back in Brisbane. I didn't really like it the first time. It was a rather big pot they were boiling all the tea in. Everyone there knew Chai.
I absolutely adore it now, Chai Latte to be exact. It's a staple for my usual Saturday morning while I take a stroll through the morning market in Brisbane. I'd hold the mug of coffee with me all the way, which never seemed enough. The first time I had it was during winter and it pretty much warms you up, which was why I held onto it. If there was one thing I missed of Brisbane, it has got to be their markets.
Now... who said I was there to study??

Chai is definitely different back in Malaysia. I can't get the same flavour in Coffee Bean nor Starbucks. Not even the Gloria Jeans in Brisbane makes Chai Latte as awesome as the ones in the market. Sometimes I think its the memories which brings back the flavour (maybe).

Breakfast at the Organic Market, I'd look forward to every week!

My mum told her friend of how much I'm in love with Chai, and her very lovely friend handed her a pack of Marsala Chai she mixed of her own. I'm so glad I could make my own Chai Latte now! I even brought my milk frother home with me too..

As for the cookies, I guess it had been a majority favourite among the rest of the Christmas cookies I baked for gifts. They were melt in your mouth, so delicate you would have to handle with care. I was told by my closest friend that the heart shaped cookies were the one they were fighting for most :)

Lemon Lavender Shortbread
(adapted from Happy Home Baking)

200g unsalted butter
85g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
a pinch of salt
1 Tbsp dried lavender
zest from one lemon
200g plain flour
3 Tbsp cornstarch

1) Sift plain flour and cornstarch together, set aside.
2) With an electric mixer, beat butter and icing sugar together until creamy.
3) Beat in egg yolk, salt, dried lavender and lemon zest.
4) Add in sifted flour and cornstarch, combining with a spatula (I used hands) to form into a dough.
5) Divide dough into two portion, each wrapped in a clingwrap and chill doughs for 30mins.
6) Form each dough into a log shape wrapped in clingwrap to further chill for another 2 hours or overnight.
7) Slice the log to 1/4" thick and lay on a tray line with parchment paper.
8) Bake in preheated oven of 180C for 12-14 mins or until cookie starts to brown.
9) Transfer cookies onto wire rack and let to cool completely before storing in airtight container

Notes:
♥ I used salted butter and omitted salt
♥ I would increase to zest of two lemons as the flavour of lemon was hardly noticeable.
♥ Instead of forming dough into logs, I wrapped dough in clingwraps, with a rolling pin roll them to about 1/4" thick. Then chill the dough for 2 hours before cutting with a cookie cutter.

It was Chai that I loved. Some pleasant things that came at the right time and left a heartwarming memory at the back of your head. Even when the days aren't so cold anymore, I'd still miss it dearly.

Banana Cake

2011-01-09T22:38:00.007+08:00

If there were fruits on the table, it has got to have room for a bunch of bananas. Although I'm not one of them who would pick one up for myself, I know people at home who would pick up four at one go! That would be one good reason why I normally wake up for the market to buy over riped bananas if I wanted to make a banana cake because I am not suppose to touch the ones on the table. They were meant to be eaten conveniently because they were ~~apparently~~ troubleless to consume.
I know! Who buys over riped bananas??

I used pisang mas this time, the little tiny ones which will surprise you with it's overpowering sweetness. If you're using pisang mas, it would be wise to reduce the sugar too. I used the same recipe as the last banana cake I made. It was a soft and moist banana cake. I loved how the top cracked at the centre.

Did time just flew before my eyes?
...or have I just woke up from a dream...?

........................CNY is like, next month!

a Very (belated) Happy New Year!

2011-01-04T23:21:00.006+08:00

While I made time for obsessive need in cookie bakings for the holiday season (Xmas & New Year - how I love the fact that they come so close to each other, I can kill two birds with one stone) I hadn't time for a new year post! On Christmas eve itself, I managed to pack them up real quickly and I was so happy that they finished up packs and packs of them during the yum cha session itself.

It is truly a blessing being able to sit down together, just like how it had always been after we've all walked our separate roads. There was a glow on my face when I saw him and yelled "Dai Lou!" (elder brother) as he patted on my head and replied. Everything's still the same, aren't they? I totally felt like that was 'the moment' for me, I had to share. Friendships. How most of us only took it for granted. Yet I wonder, when would be the next time we'll see each other again.

I've been pretty occupied lately. I'd start with Crisp Coconut Biscuits which was Dai Lou's favourite among the rest. I made stained glass cookies again, with wider portions of candy in the middle, using a triangle cutter hoping it could shape into a christmas tree. Which was a mistake, cause everyone found it very hard to bite into, but I thought they looked pretty..
Some ginger snaps, my friend called it 'gai zhai beng' (chinese chicken biscuits), soft chewy cookie, god sis and I adore most and lemon lavender shortbreads which had received the most compliments.

Crispy Coconut Biscuits
(makes about 40)

125g butter
135g castor sugar
1 egg
240g self-raising flour
a pinch of salt
75g (1 cup) dessicated coconut

Method:

1) Cream butter and sugar, then beat in egg.
2) Sift in flour and beat until combined.
3) Add in salt and coconut.
4) Roll into balls and press it flat between hands. (I used a fork to do this)
5) Dip the top side with extra sugar.
6) Place on greased oven trays with sugared side up.
7) Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 10-15mins or until it starts to turn golden brown.

Wishing you a better year ahead and all the best in 2011!!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

2010-12-28T22:00:00.006+08:00

There's nothing more ordinary than a pandan chiffon cake. Taking it for granted ever since I was in Malaysia, I missed it dearly while I was away. The pandan tree right behind my house which I never bothered to make anything out of. Now it's sadly bald once I got home. There's just a sweet scent of these leaves I could compare as an Asian version of vanilla.

I craved for it. I know! Noone craves for pandan. Do you?
It seems strange to crave for a scent, but I really did, and I knew I had to make some soft and fluffy pandan chiffon.
There's like at least 15 pandan leaves in there! Overkill the craving once and for all....

Pandan Chiffon Cake
(8"/20cm tube pan)

3 egg yolks
20g sugar

3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
45g castor sugar
100ml pandan juice
45ml vegetable oil

100g plain flour
10g corn flour
1/8 tsp baking powder

Method:

Beat egg yolks with 20g sugar until pale. Whisk in pandan juice until incoporated.
Add all dry ingredients gradually, beating at low speed. Fold in oil last.

Whip egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the rest of the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.

Fold half of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Slowly stir and fold until blended.
Pour the whole of the egg yolk into the egg white mixture. Gently fold until combined.

Pour batter into an ungreased chiffon pan.
Bake at 175C for 40-45mins.

Notes:
♥ I baked the cake covered with an aluminum foil for the last 15mins

Merry Christmas '10 and a Dark Fruit Cake

2010-12-25T13:07:00.009+08:00

A very last minute fruit cake isn't exactly a bad idea after all. It is absolutely alcoholic, I'm glad everyone loved the cake, especially Mum. She was like, the biggest fan asking me when I could make the same one again. The mixed fruits were boiled with a higher content of alcohol compared to the other fruit cakes. This make the flavours so distinct that whenever we opened the containers of the cake, it would smell like brandy. Yes, I kind of finished my Mum's brandy in this cake. How lucky for me, it tasted great as it was my first attempt on fruit cake, otherwise I might probably be skinned alive.

Christmas have never really been much for me. I look forward to it every year knowing that it's just going to be another day for me. I loved the christmas trees and pretty lights decorating the city. The christmas songs being played over and over again spreading the love and joy as we sing it over and over again never getting bored of them.
We both held an arm full of lyrics with any song you could possibly think of, and he would laugh at how silly we both are. Always there to entertain the both of us, and to share a part of his craziness with her where I was the one to spoil their fun. Everyday after school, there was definitely something in mind for the three of us. If it wasn't swimming at her place it was basketball at mine else it was a movie at his.

Looking back at time, I wish nothing has changed. He wasn't the person we both once knew and my regret is that I'm not able to bring things back to the way it was 6 years ago. We both will always remember him as our best friend. Our friendship was so amazing because we all had respective beliefs and yet so close to each other. As for my fruit cake which was made for my family and friends reminded me of a long lost friend who had made a chapter in my life.
I hope that we'll meet each other some time again.

Dark Fruit Cake Recipe
(adapted from Exclusively Food)

125g butter, roughly chopped
150g brown sugar
125ml brandy
125ml water

500g mixed fruits
100g glace cherries, chopped

70g walnuts, toasted, roughly chopped
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda

150g plain flour
150g self-raising flour
50g pecans, raw, whole

Method:

1. Grease the base and sides of a deep 7.5inch square cake pan. Line the base and sides with three layers of baking paper, extending paper about 2.5cm above the top of the pan.
2. Place butter, brown sugar, brandy, water, mixed fruits, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg and baking soda in a saucepan.
3. Place saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until butter and sugar dissolves completely.
4. Remove saucepan from heat as soon as mixture boils.
5. Transfer mixture into a large heatproof bowl. Set mixture aside to cool to lukewarm or room temperature (about 40mins).
6. Preheat oven to 160C.
7. Mix in walnuts and eggs.
8. Add in sifted flours and stir until combined.
9. Pour batter into prepared pan. Arrange whole pecans on the top of the cake, pushing it slightly into the batter.
10. Bake for 1 hour then cover the top with foil and bake for another 15-20mins.
11. Leave cake in pan, covered with greaseproof paper and leave it until completely cooled.
12. Remove cake from cooled pan and store in airtight container.

Notes:
♥ original recipe uses sweet sherry in place of brandy
♥♥ the mixed fruits were soaked in hot water, squeezed off the sugar water and soaked with brandy for 30mins beforehand.

This is my entry for the Christmas giveaway hoted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot.

Winter Solstice Festival '10

2010-12-23T12:14:00.004+08:00

Again, our favourite glutinous rice balls. Can't get enough of it, yea?
This time with my favorite palm sugar (Gula Merah/Gula Melaka). I absolutely love the fragrance, especially when there's lots of ginger in there. Obviously the green ones are done with pandan juice. The pinkish-purpley ones were done by mashing dragon fruit and sieving out the seeds. I'm very curious of how it would look like if I'd include seeds in it. I'll have polka dot tong yuen??

Hope you all had a great one :)

Glutinous Rice Balls for Winter Solstice.

2010-12-22T14:54:00.007+08:00

What a breeze. It's been a year already. Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Balls) would remind me that I'm elder by a year. We used to love it when we were kids, the fact that we're getting older and the fact that we get to eat lots and lots of 'dooing dooing' (bouncy or some people would say qiu qiu/kiu kiu) balls made of nothing else but ~~flour~~ glutinous rice flour.

I remember a few years back we had litres and litres of cold soy milk with the warm tang yuans in place of the usual ginger syrup. This year, I planned to make some of my own with my new blender.

The green colour is from pandan leaves that I blended in together with the soy beans. Absolutely love the green colour!

Homemade Organic Soy Milk

125g organic soy beans
1L water
5 pandan leaves (screwpine)

Black Sesame Filling Recipe

200g black sesame
100g icing sugar (or more, else black sesame would taste bitter on it's own)
2-3Tbsp peanut butter

Method:
Blend all ingredients together, adding hot water if it's too dry. Refridgerate to set.

One year ago : 10 grain rice with glutinous rice ball

Have a Happy Dong Zhi festival!

Manhattan Lemon Cheesecake

2010-12-20T21:58:00.004+08:00

Give me a slice of cheesecake and I'm in heaven.
Light and fluffy cheesecake, it's not. Neither it's heavy and dense.
It's lemony and I don't know why I have some issues with sugar. It would be a mistake to reduce sugar in this case because lemons are sour. I'd pop lots of lemon juice in it. It's called lemon cheesecake for a reason. There's no other distinct flavour its suppose to have.
Why waste?

I baked it once, twice.. thrice.. and everyone loves it.

I'd really have to thank Elin for this. My mum loves it and so does my friends. I made them for my friend's birthday when I was in Brissy. The cheese isn't any cheaper than here (surprisingly) but it's a very simple cake to whip up! Plus I have all the strawberries and whipping cream I need..

Century Egg Congee with Dried Oyster and Scallop

2010-12-17T11:56:00.005+08:00

We like to dump in everything into the congee. Like dried scallops and dried oysters.
I'm dont fancy soy sauce on plain congee with funny side dishes grandma used to make. She'll simply dump in sweet potatoes.. Definitely not my kind of porridge.
Moreover, I don't think a sick person would find that appetizing.

I used to think that mee sua and porridge were meant for sick people. After trying out some at dim sum restaurants, I kind of like congee, which is finer than the normal porridge.

Instead, mum likes to make congee with different varieties. I'll dump in everything and patiently wait for the rice cooker to slowly cook the rice. The longer it cooks, the thicker, the finer it is. I'll just keep adding water.. I like it slightly waterry.

It's done the same way with a little tweak :)
Have a great weekend!

Steamed BBQ Pork Buns (叉烧包)

2010-12-10T18:32:00.007+08:00

Yes lah. I'm wholy. What do you have against wholemeal leh??
It's soft and fluffy. Only... It's not smiling (like the previous one), and perhaps it wasn't suppose to. I sealed it tight so the sauce remained where it was suppose to be because there wasn't much to offer anyway.
Stingy me but I'd rather have it all done at one go than have left overs here and there.

Recipe was amended from the previous steamed buns recipe.
As I was tapping on the bottle of baking powder into the mixture, I wondered if my kitchen scale was playing a trick on me. I'm afraid it wasn't. This bun recipe texture was soft. Lays somewhere in between a cake and bread. It was tender and slightly chewy, and wholemeal.. would just add to sweetness and texture!
I would surely keep this bun recipe.

Wholemeal Steamed BBQ Pork Buns (Char Siew Bao/叉烧包)
(makes 12 mini / 8 medium sized buns)

4g yeast
80g lukewarm water

120g plain flour
30g wholemeal (coarse texture)
10g corn flour
40g wheat starch (tang mein fan)
20g castor sugar

5g vegetable oil

5g baking powder
5g water

Method:
Sprinkle yeast over water and leave it for 5mins.

Sift flour plain flour, cornflour and wheat starch together.
Add wholemeal and castor sugar into mixture.

Make a well in the centre, gradually add in yeast mixture using a fork, mix in circular motion.
Knead until it forms a smooth dough. Add in vegetable oil and continue to knead for 10-15mins until dough is smooth and elastic.

Place it in a bowl covered with a cling wrap or damp cloth.
Let dough proof for 40mins.

Sprinkle baking powder into 5g water. Mixture will start to foam. Add it into the dough and knead for 5-10mins.

Divide the dough, roll them into balls.
Flatten each dough, using a small rolling pin to roll the edges thinner.
Scoop a spoon full of filling into the centre and pleat to seal.

Steam at high heat for 15-20mins.

BBQ Pork Filling:

250g BBQ Pork (char siew), diced
1 onion, chopped
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp dark soy sayce
100ml water

2-3 Tbsp frozen green peas

1 Tbsp corn flour
30ml water

Method:

Heat oil in pan, saute onion followed by BBQ pork.
Mix together sesame oil, oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauce in 100ml water.
Add sauce mixture and frozen green peas. Cook for 5 mins.
Mix corn flour with 30ml water, add mixture into pan and bring it to a simmer until sauce thickens.
Set aside to cool, then leave to chill in fridge.

Please mind my bad pleating skill.. heh heh.. I need more practice!

Dry Egg Noodles with Chinese BBQ Pork (叉烧乾撈麵)

2010-12-08T17:30:00.012+08:00

It's hard to blog not knowing where to start from all over again. The passion for cooking hasn't fade away (unfortunately, I'm still a foodie and my friends have to watch and starve seeing the pictures online). I browse through recipes during my leisure times (and also during my busiest, like before finals/THE finals). Now, I'm having the time of my life sipping through some hot tea on a rainy day like this, picking up a book to read. Does that sound very aussiefied to you? You can't blame me, cause I didn't get to be one when I was there so I'd better act like one while I can. Here. Where lightening strikes one moment and the next its so sunny I feel like I'd faint any moment. Okay, I admit that I've been pretty dramatic complaining about the weather, even my mum can't take it as I'm using it to annoy her (again, while I still can :P).

Some fine day she brought home some really good egg noodles!
I screamed.... char siewwwwwwwwwww................................
Ofcourse, the first thing which comes to mind was won ton mee, my favorite since I was two!
I needed a won ton mee fix every week and mum would remind me of how sickening it was to her as I demanded for it. I still find the one in Taman Bukit Maluri the best regardless of where else people claim of. It's just right behind the market we would usually attend to. Come to think of it, yea I pretty much tagged along to the the market since I was young. It used to be a routine, now, it's pleasure.

How is it won ton noodles without won ton??

My second attempt on char siew. I hope my cooking skills hasn't declined. It was conveniently done with packaged char siew sauce.. bite me.

Dry Noodles with Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siew Gon Lou Mee/乾撈麵)
(serves 4 hungry people)

6 coils dried wonton noodles (or thin egg noodles)
a bunch of choy sum, cooked

seasoning for each serving:

1~2 tsp oyster sauce
1~2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp reserved char siew sauce (see below)
1 Tbsp garlic oil

a drizzle of sesame oil
some chinese bbq pork (char siew)
some chopped spring onions

Method:
Prepare seasoning and choy sum on individual plates.

Bring water to a boil in a wok and prepare another pot of cold water (I used room temperature).
Loosen a coil of noodle, cook in boiling water for 20seconds. Shock it in cold water, and place it back in the boiling water for another 40seconds.

Place noodles onto plate, immediately mix with seasoning.
Serve with char siew.

(the lazy) Chinese BBQ Pork

500g pork
2 Tbsp char siew sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee)
4 pieces rock sugar, pounded
some honey

Method:
Marinade pork overnight in fridge. Heat a shallow pan, place marinated pork with marinade into the pot. Add water until it covers half the meat. Cook under medium heat until sauce thickens (about 15mins). Turn meat over the other side, add water if necessary and continue to cook. Remove meat from the pan once done. Add water to the pan and cook until sauce thickens. Sieve and reserve sauce for dry noodles.

Before serving, brush honey on the surface of meat, bake in oven at 200C for 20~25mins (depending on size of the meat).

Let the meat rest on a wire rack for 10-15mins before slicing.

Yes, the won ton and soup is missing. I've only got two hands. Cut me some slack, mum...

High Fibre Multigrain Bread

2010-12-02T22:58:00.004+08:00

Despite the fact that it's healthy, I love the nutty flavour, paired with raisins, almonds, walnuts etc. I honestly couldn't remember what I have placed in the bread after making it numerous times.

High Fibre Multigrain Bread
(makes 3 small loaves)

150g multigrain flour
290g water
1Tbsp (10g) brown sugar
1tsp salt

350g high protein flour
8g instant yeast

20g olive oil

50g sunflower seeds, toasted
50g almonds/walnuts, toasted
50g raisins, soaked in hot water then drained

Method:
Mix multigrain flour in water together with brown sugar and salt.
Let it soak for 10mins. Make a well in the center and place in high protein flour and yeast.
Slowly mix all together, and knead until coarse texture (about 5mins).

Add olive oil and knead for approximately 20mins.
Place the dough in a bowl covered with a damp towel and let to proof for 40mins.

After it doubles in size, the dough is less sticky.
Lightly dust surface with flour and divide dough into 3, each weighing 260g.
Roll them into balls and let it rest for 15mins. (I skipped this part)

Roll out the dough into an oval shape. Randomly sprinkle the top with sunflower seeds, nuts and raisins.
Press the filling into the dough, and roll it up tightly.
Repeat with the rest of the dough

Shape the bread dough into a long oval loaf. Place ontop of a greased pan.
With a sharp knife, carve a few strokes on the top.
Cover with a damp towel and let it rest for another 40-50mins.

Bake it in a preheated oven at 200C for 15-20mins.

~|Notes|~
♥ reduced olive oil to 10g
♥ doubled up raisin portions

miss, missed and missing.

2010-11-29T15:34:00.005+08:00

I'm officially back!
It never felt so home until I had been away. Laying on my own bed, sitting on the couch with my favourite cook show on and the most exciting thing is having a kitchen I'm so familiar of. Dragging very heavy luggage home for my mum filled with nothing but chocolates, Macadamias and Tim Tams have droved me crazy as I was dancing around the airport for a dreadful 12 hours explains why I'm even more glad to be home.

People tend to say, that they would miss lots of Malaysian food while they're away. I do, but not as much as I thought I would. In fact, I missed having breakfast with Mum, regardless of what it was on weekends. I missed blogging.

I know, I went missing. I've been giving my whole life into studying. It was unexpectedly challenging, and I could go on and on with much misfortune I have faced there. I pray and hope everything would change for me the next time I return.

Knowing how much I've miss in blogging- the gatherings, the updates in your blog and the ongoings in your life it's time to pick them up again. I hope I'm welcomed to join the blogging community once again.

Black and White Angel Food Cake
(adapted from myRecipes)

12 large egg whites
120g (1/2 cup) caster sugar (original called for 340g)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cocoa powder
120g (1cup) cake flour

Method:
Preheat oven to 160C.

Add cream of tartat, salt and eggwhites into a large bowl. With a mixer, beat until foamy.
Add in 3/4 of the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time while whisking until stiff peaks formed.
Beat in lemon juice and vanilla.

Sift flour over egg white mixture, 1/4cup at a time (or in four parts).
Gently fold in until flour is entirely incorporated.
Spoon half the batter into an ungreased 10inch tube pan, spreading evenly.

Sift cocoa powder into the remaining mixture, folding it gently once again until combined.
Pour over the white mixture. Cut through the batter with a sharp knife to remove air pockets.

Bake for 55mins, until cake springs back when lightly touched. Invert pan on a wire rack to cool completely before removing it from pan.

at the breakpoint

2010-11-02T19:10:00.006+08:00

Opening my eyes to believe that finals would come next week, and I'm blogging.
I could only say that since Uni had started for me, I never had any leisure time to do so (not that I'm having any leisure time right now - where I'm suppose to be studying or should I say, now is considered 'leisure' compared to times when I was struggling with classes and the crazy workload.. and my very first time camping in Uni at midnight during weekends.)

I decided to post up some photos of the Char Siew (Honey Roasted BBQ Pork), my first attempt back in Malaysia. Following mum's steps and recipe obediently, we were quite satisfied with it.

I tried it in both ways Mum have taught me to. One was baked in the oven and the other was cooked with tender, love and care (it took about an hour to cook in a pan, yes, on the stove). How I miss baking and cooking.. I will find time.. soon.

Some things will never change.

2010-09-14T20:46:00.004+08:00

My love for sweets, shall never change. Some pancakes with pure maple syrup should be something I'd wake up for, makes the morning seem worthwhile.
In fact, I'm still not very used to the bright sunlight at 6 in the morning. I'd wake up automatically. I know, 6 sounds crazy.

Living with a housemate who loves dessert and pretty food like me, we've really got something in common. He was more than willing to photograph stuff I make and he does it so professionally. The top and bottom one was photographed by him. The second one was mine, which you can see the huge difference..

...and yeah, I know I've been stingy on updates and recipes - hopefully I have some time to catch up soon!

Blogging from Brisbane

2010-07-27T19:59:00.002+08:00

Dear Readers,

I'm not pretty much back into blogging, although I know there is alot of recipes that have yet to be posted. Life's been pretty hectic trying to fit in. Especially when there's only me and mum, leaving us both entire clueless.

At the bad times, when problems never seem to stop popping up by the minute, there was just no free time to blog or cook. It's just the everyday walk-bus-uni-tutorials-labs-bus-walk-home. Days seem to pass so quickly now, thinking of how I look forward to end class everyday so I could go home and get things done, but they never happened. Everything seemed so new.
Learning everything in split seconds is a must. From the very far roads, to the form of transportation, where and where to get the bus, which station to get home, how long would it take - that's about everything to digest. Not forgetting the new home to adapt into with my very helpful housemates.

I'm going to blog only when I find adequate time to.
I hope all of you are doing great.

PS : I have not read the emails yet. Sorry, would catch up with you girls really soon!

Thankyou

Love,
tracieMoo
xOxOxOxO

me and grains.

2010-07-05T23:00:00.005+08:00

If you have known me well enough, I'm really that girl who's into grains, seeds and wheat.
My friends call it 'bird food', as my daily salads were named 'cow food'.
There's nothing wrong with the names, really. I'm just wondering if it was an insult that animal's food wasn't meant for humans too?
I mean, even worms pick the best and organic veges to crawl into, and the birds pick the best fruits to peck.

It's hard to get used to. Everytime I speak of wholegrains, Mum would take a step back. It gets better in time, and she's starting like it. The bread was soft, and remained the same way for 2days.
My first time doing the tang zhong method. It takes another extra step, though I'm not sure what difference did it make to the straight method.

I was exploring a new ingredient shop discovered somewhere not far from home. They had many different wholegrain flour. I conveniently picked up the one with flax seeds, malt, and something. I couldn't remember.

Anyhow, I loved the bread. It was alot more dense than the normal white bread ofcourse, and wholegrain meant texture. Up for a healthy breakfast?

simplicity, with a guide.

2010-06-29T00:50:00.006+08:00

I would dread, most of the time to cook. You must be confused. If I'd love doing it so much why would I dread doing it? When you push it against your own will, that's when you start to hate.
That's why I don't.

Totally different story when it comes to baking. I'm a hardworking baker. I work with the oven more than my wok. I used sugar more than salt. The kneading, folding, wrapping up pastries, layers and layers, days and night, freezing and thawing -I could not only bare, but to adore. The anxiety and excitement as I watch the cake/breads/pastries that I bake in the oven.
Priceless.. it's priceless.

Also, apart of over indulging, I feel very good to cook healthy meals. It makes me feel content, when it tastes too good to be even considered healthy food. Whenever I wanted something light, I could just grab the made-ahead stock and place in my favorite veges and meat. That would be a great lunch.

Usually, my mum would be doing the long washing, boiling process of making the stock. This time she taught me how to make my own after being inspired by a book I read from MPH the other day, of Asian soups.

Ikan Bilis (Anchovies) Broth Recipe

80g of ikan bilis (dried anchovies), heads removed, cleaned
100g of large bean sprouts
2 thin slices of ginger
1.2 litre of water

Method:
Rinse dried anchovies several times.
Place dried anchovies, bean sprouts and water into a pot. Bring it to a boil.
Place in garlic and ginger, lower down heat and let it simmer for 50 - 60mins.
Strain the broth through a sieve.

~|Notes|~
♥ Can be kept in fridge for a few days and weeks in the freezer.

Spinach and Fish Ball Soup Recipe
(serves 2)

2 cups (500ml) ikan bilis (dried anchovies) broth
2 cloves of garlic, pounded
1 onion, sliced or whole

250g baby spinach
300g homemade fish paste
a handful of fresh shiitake mushrooms
a handful of enoki mushrooms

salt and pepper to taste
sesame oil to drizzle (optional)

Method:
Bring stock and garlic to a boil. Lower down to medium heat.
Scoop in fish paste with a clean wet spoon.
Place in spinach and mushrooms.
Simmer for 2-3mins.
Turn off heat and serve warm.

the Accidental swirl

2010-06-22T15:42:00.006+08:00

Skipping my way to my god sister's place (my second home) with my pumpkin rolls for them.

Pillow-like, dreamy soft buns. I usually go there to be stuffed with food testing. Weather it is store bought or homemade. On that same day, she showed me her coffee, chocolate chunk, and walnut bread.
It was very soft and the strong coffee aroma just gave me the 'kick' to make this too.

I couldn't believe it was wholemeal. Really.
She bought a pack or coarse texture wholemeal flour as we agreed that it tasted better than the grounded ones. I don't know what made the difference or would the amount of water absorption differ, but with my god sister's recipe I needn't to worry.
So I grabbed a pack for myself and made the same bread she did.

She handed me the recipe without hesitation, like always. I don't even have to ask for it.

Most of the time she would ask me if I wanted them.
I just have to nod and the recipe would be in my hands.
Actually I don't even think she needs a recipe.

Wholemeal Coffee Bread Loaf Recipe
(makes two 8x4 inch loaf)

300g high protein flour
130g wholemeal (coarse texture)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast

250ml coffee with milk*

2T butter

Filling:
some toasted walnuts, chopped coarsely
some chocolate chunks

Method:
Mix flour, wholemeal, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Pour in coffee, stir with a wooden spoon.
Knead dough until soft and smooth.
Add butter and knead until elastic and not sticky to touch.
(I'm a weakling, and my hands can't take too much of kneading - I knead at a total of 20mins)

Place it in a lightly oiled bowl covered with cling wrap.
Rest for 40mins or until doubles in size.

Divide dough into two. Lightly dust work surface with flour. Roll out the dough into a rectangle.
Sprinkle over chopped nuts and chocolate chunks. Roll it up like a swiss roll. Place into greased loaf tins.
Repeat with the second dough.

Rest it for 40-50mins.

Preheat oven at 190C and bake for 30-35mins.

~|Notes|~
*Coffee can be replaced with milk if desired.
**Initially, recipe called for 200ml of liquid but dough was too try until I add anoter 50ml, add water gradually to be safe.

not letting go of my sweet sweet dumplings..

2010-06-18T16:46:00.017+08:00

Why can I not get over the dumpling post already?
I've wanted to continue practising my dumpling wrapping but I hadn't a chance.
Ah Bu (the way I call my god mum, the same as my god sisters because they were Hokkien), wrapped these delicate dumplings!
She did it all by herself. I had to post about it because I loved them to bits. Really. She's part of the reason why I had so much passion for food.

She took care of me since I was young and I polish the plate without picking out the spring onions and garlic. Until I left when I was 5, I started being very fussy because food didn't taste the same without her in the kitchen. I'm not whining, she was just a great cook!
The way she keeps telling me how I could savour hard boiled eggs (for usually half an hour) she use to braise in her Chinese Braised Pork dish. It's by far my childhood favourite, and her famous Orange Chicken too!

I wanted so much to wrap alkaline dumplings too but since I've heard that she was going to do it, I decided not to burden my stomach too much. It's glutinous rice. How much can we eat, I sigh while watching at the piles of dumplings on the table. There were too many people who gave dumplings, I can't recall this phenomena happening every year. I have a feeling that everyone is so willing to wrap their own due to the overpriced dumplings sold at the market nowadays.

I've never ate this many dumplings in my life. Never a big fan of glutinous rice. Infact, I remember there were years when I didn't had them. Not the savoury ones, at least. My favourite has always been alkaline dumplings. I've proven my point that I'm a dessert person.

These dumplings were tightly wrapped, leaving no chance for water to seep in. Cooked perfectly. Neither too soft nor too hard. Very chewy, the exact texture I've wanted. Plus the red bean filling was homemade, just the right sweetness and generous mushy portion!

Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

2010-06-16T10:42:00.010+08:00

The Dragon Boat Festival, more known as duan wu jie (端午節) falls on the fifth day, fifth month of the Chinese calendar, another excuse the elderly use to call a reunion. I know how it's like to stay at home, being so caught up in little plans, knowing only days instead of dates, living by the moment just like grandma.
She flipped through the huge typical Chinese calendars, with the date written so big at the front and Chinese characters scattered around the bottom. "When is 大日子?" (dai yat zhi / da re zi / the big day, which she meant -the upcoming festive).

Obviously, I couldn't answer her question due to my Chinese illiteracy
There's always a story behind these festives, just like how Mum used to repeat every year, "The note was hidden in the mooncake to be sent to the King" or something like that.

As far as I could recall, Duan Wu Jie (Dragon Boat Festival), holds the story of a righteous man who died in the river, his body was not found. He was well respected and people did not want the fishes to eat his body, so they wrapped dumplings to be thrown into the river hoping that the fishes would not eat his body.
Legend or history? Well, I don't think I'm curious enough to find out. History was never my subject, and they were nothing more than a simple story Mum told me when I was young.
Also, I know there are many versions of stories like this. Was yours similiar?

This is my first attempt on wrapping glutinous rice dumplings. It was a hell of an experience. Mum and I made them after dinner and the kitchen was a battleground. Guests were scattered all around the place, it was the usual Saturday pot-lucks. Then my Ah Yii (aunt) came to help out, and as soon as I started to realize, there everyone were seated at the dining table. We learnt from grandma. She taught us how to wrap the rice dumplings into perfect pyramids. It takes alot to learn, I've overestimated my wrapping skills. I thought, by watching videos and seeing steps on the internet was "doing my homework". Clearly, it wasn't. There was no way to watch and learn. It was wrapping, over and over again until you get it. Mum did not. She stopped at her second, as I went on. Without noticing, a little crowd has grewn larger in the kitchen as we looked like we were playing musical chairs, minus the music and the chairs.
Moving around the counter to grab ingredients and scooping it into the cones folded with bamboo leaves. From glutinous rice, black eyes peas, mushrooms, pork belly and the favorite part was chestnuts.
There were alot of preparations done ahead, separately which was all the hard work. The rest was stamina.

We made 30 rice dumpling out of the 1kg of glutinous rice, I don't know how it happened.
There were a few which was not tied properly, and some where water had seeped in, removing much of the flavours of the rice but mostly was alright. It was a first attempt, we did not know how much rice and dumplings to estimate, nor how much flavour to add into the ingredients I would say it turned out not too bad.
The best one was the last, when we were out of ingredients, left with rice. Mum opened her treasure bag. Scallops and dried oysters. I made sure I tied the last one so tightly that it stands no chance in leaking making so obvious that I've marked my terriory kind-of-thing.
The YUMMIEST of them all, I don't even have to ask the mirror.

Wishing you a Happy Dragon Boat Festival, 端午节快乐!

It's double, for a reason.

2010-06-15T15:30:00.007+08:00

Deceived by it's colour, everyone picked up the dark chocolate muffins, which was called double due to cocoa, in the batter itself and chocolate chips.

However, the only difference made was a substitute of flour with cocoa powder. They both tasted really good. I kept this recipe, and passed to my god sister. She tried and and kept it too.

This was baked months ago, before my final examinations. Made for the class. It was quick and simple, plus the ingredients are always available in my pantry. Just like a grab and go. Saved a bit of shopping hassle. You know, how we could go all the way buying things that we don't need and forgetting about the things we do.
"Women.." so it's a nature. Needn't to feel those unnecessary guilt. I mean, we ought to use it up one day, so buying it now would save us hassle of searching high and low in the near future, don't you think so?

The smell of these chocolate chip muffins, baking in the oven was alluring. It was moist, and chocolaty minus the mess of melting chocolate process, spending the rest of the day cleaning the kitchen. So far, for the muffins I have made, they all tasted even better the next day where the oil is released from the muffins. Reheating, is optional. I didn't reheat them because as soon as the container is opened, it would be a sin not to sink your teeth into these delicious muffins.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
(makes 24mini / 12 regular size muffins)

100g butter, softened
150g brown sugar
2 eggs
180ml milk
2tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour
4tsp baking powder
2Tbsp cocoa powder

150g chocolate chips (be generous)

Method:
Prepare muffin tins, line with muffin cups or lightly grease.
Whisk butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and milk together.
Sift the dry ingredients together -flour, baking powder and cocoa powder.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix until well blended, becareful not to overmix. (I used a fork.)
Fold in chocolate chips.

Divide batter into prepared cups/tins.
Bake at preheated oven 190C for 17-20mins, depending on size.

~|Notes|~
♥ replace cocoa powder with flour to make a regular chocolate chip muffin.

It's not that kind of muffins I would like for a breakfast, but it would be perfect for tea.
Most of the recipes were saved in my infected laptop, hopefully it gets back to me soon so I can share with you more great recipes.

the current misfortune.

2010-06-10T22:16:00.006+08:00

Times when I'd always go "no, it's not luck, it's skills." or "no, it's not luck, it's just that wrong timing."
Luck, never quite believed in it.. until now.
All the bad thing has to happen at once. So many that when I tell people, they might as well have it at the back of their minds that I'm just purely bull shytting about my current misfortune.
Oh, how I wish I really was.

The pipes have to go bursting through my walls at this time. Which means, no water. Once the main pipe is opened, someone has to stand by the wall and mop the floor continuously. I obviously would need a robot, or maybe you could lend me a "kakak" or "Maria" to do that for me. Care to send me a sane one, to keep me away from insanity?

Urg, and things got worst when I had a looong day with my laptop and desktop, both giving me trouble at the same time I don't know which to fix first. Not like I know how to. I'd send them both somewhere when I have time.

So there wouldn't be much from this post other than whining, and incase you were wondering, this is not the usual sweet potatoes tong shui (sweet soup). It's a porridge, for breakfast I usually have. A sweet porridge made of 10 grain rice.
Because the sweet potatoes were sweet enough, I needn't to add any sugar into it.

Making this is easy, just boiling it for about 45mins in the rice cooker works for my lazy morning. Throwing in the sweet potatoes in the last 20mins, and a good, warm, healthy, nutritious breakfast. I've wrote it before.. somewhere... here!

Found some kind of very typical 'chinese' traits in me..
Love it with homemade baos. Not dealing with any flours, because we need to do the least washing now.

steamed, baked and four cakes!

2010-06-07T19:50:00.012+08:00

It was time to visit my former lecturers.
Although, it was clear that most of us dread waking up going to college in the morning.
I've decided to bake some cakes, which didn't happen during my college days because I could not make time. Gifts which comes from the heart, needs time, love and real thinking. We definitely wouldn't want cream cakes landing on someone's head (unintentionally) during the delivery process, wouldn't we?

It was the steamed moist chocolate cake again, which I ~~baked~~ steamed for mothers' day, did please everyone. Even my cousin whom was not a big fan of cakes.

Another cake I've always wanted to bake was a good butter cake. Never been so fascinated by butter cakes. I was dancing around telling Mum that my butter cake had PORES! She literally thought I went bonkers. The cake was so soft and fluffy.
I actually like the corners, being happy enough to cut them off so that the butter cake looks good enough to fit into their cases (while I nibble away the leftovers). The sides were just more, crusty and I always chose to eat the corners. While my Mum is the total opposite, she claims that it's too dry and would usually cut them off, throw them away to feed the dogs.
Do you like the sides of the cake too, or am I strange?

Accompanied with little jars of chocolate chunk cookies, I baked the other day. I hope it smells and tastes like Famous Amos.

Marble Butter Cake Recipe
(modified from Cooking Crave)

250 g unsalted butter (Golden Churn for me please)
85 g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of Salt
4 egg yolks
200 g cake flour
1 tsp Baking Powder

4 egg whites
85 gm castor sugar

1/2 Tbsp milk
2 tsp cocoa powder dissolved in 2 tsp hot water

Method:
Preheat oven at 175C. Line an 8" baking pan with parchment paper.
Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.

Beat softened butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg yolks one at a time until well blended
Fold in the sifted flour, placing in one spoon at a time (I used an electric mixer at low speed).

In a clean bowl and clean electric mixer, whisk on high speed until foamy. Start to add in sugar gradually and continue to whisk until soft peaks achieved.
Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites in into the butter cake batter gently. Then gently fold in the rest without losing much of it's volume.

Divide batter into two. One adding in milk, and the other adding in the cocoa powder mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared cake pan, alternating with cocoa and milk batter and give it a light tap on the table. Using a skewer or a sharp knife, create a swirl effect.
Bake in preheated oven for 40-45mins or until a tested skewer comes out clean.

~|Notes|~
♥ I baked at 160C for the same amount of time, and a baking pan of 9x6".
♥♥ Omit cocoa powder mixture and substitute for 1Tbsp of milk instead of 1/2Tbsp, to make original butter cake.

Believe me, if you'd try making your own steamed moist chocolate cake and a good butter cake they taste nothing like the ones sold outside. They're way better. You could add in anything you like at all. Even dividing the batter into whatever moulds you like to add different flavours. Now, that's an idea, for good gifts!

For the first time, I have an urge to bake myself a butter cake!

the anything drop cookies

2010-06-04T15:33:00.007+08:00

Chocolate chip cookies, are popular favorites. Like I said, chocolate are very safe choices to make. Since I'll be giving them out as gifts for my lecturers, I did try out a few recipes to find the right ones. The previous ones were pretty good but when I let my god sister tasted it, she said it was nice yet she claimed that hers tasted better. Isn't that annoying (in a good way)?

"Nice lah. But mine tastes better leh."

*takes another bite on the cookie*

"Ok lah, but I think mine is better leh."

Without hesitating she passed me her recipe after such remarks and I gave it a try.

It was an anything chocolate chip whatever nut cookies. The recipe wasn't specific. I told you. My god sis does magic. She could just feeeeeeel the dough, watch with her eyes, and know what the batter is thinking. Maybe she's some alien who speaks to ingredients, I don't know but it's all good.

I added in so much nuts and chocolate chunk pieces, and the cookie did taste really good. They were drop cookies, so there was no shaping needed. It expended much and I made enough for 4 small tubs. Just the right number and some extras.
The first batch was cursed. Luckily, I only tried with three spoons of cookie dough. Added in some flour, almonds, walnuts and chocolate chunks. Try to reconnect with the cookie dough, no I wasn't talking to the dough, but I was trying hard enough to feel it, and the freshly baked cookies were reaaaaly good!

Chocolate Chunk, Walnut and Almond Cookie
(God Sis's Recipe)

250g butter
200g brown sugar
2 eggs
300g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

handful walnuts & almonds, coarsely chopped
1 huge bar of chocolate (didn't measure), coarsely chopped

Method:
Beat butter and sugar until creamy (not light and fluffy).
Add eggs one at a time.
Fold in flour, baking powder and baking soda (I used an electric mixer on low speed).
Fold in the rest of nuts and choc.
Spoon cookie dough onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper, about 1-2cm apart.

Baking time, for small cookies 12-15mins, preheated oven 180C.

~|Notes|~
♥ Cookies are initially soft when they come out from the oven. Leave on baking pan to cool until it is able to be picked up by hands. Further cool on wire rack.

Addictive indeed. Could have added some cocoa powder for some extra good flavour but it was time for a change :)
They were not only crunchy, they were light and crispy!
Thank God I gave them away, it saved my life.

chilled dessert to fit the warm weather!

2010-06-03T13:35:00.012+08:00

The times when you wanted that beautifully packaged toy, in it were multi-coloured candy.
I was so young it was unable to reach that top rack on the shelf whenever I trailed my Mum to buy groceries at the supermarket. The place I once hated so much, a boring place to shop.
..and Mum had to say no into letting me have candies and junk.

I grew up with real food, instead of fast food. No burgers, potato chips and french fries. Feeding on juice and soy milk instead of gassy, sassy, sexy drinks like coke which every teenage would love. Until now, I never ordered coke and would gladly exchange it for mineral water if I happened to be eating at a fast food restaurant. French fries? not a very big fan though.

She brought me to restaurants to eat instead. Foods of any kind. Except junk shops.
Times when we both went to McD in the 19years of my life was because it was the only shop we see, next to my piano class and we were dead hungry.

She looked at the hasma instead and said to me, "Eat this wan lah."
As the lady boss agreed. I mean, we all know the story of the birds' nest by now.

"Owh, Frog's Fallopian Tubes", I blurted.
And there was this lady beside me laughed.
Opps. I didn't know they spoke English. It was a typical Chinese medicine shop, right infront of the marketplace. "but it's good for you", she replied.
I grinned looking at mum, "I know."
Like I had done previously, I decided to remake with a hint of almond milk, my new love.

Stewed Hasma with Almond Milk
(serves 4)

5g Hasma
2 pieces white fungus
30g of lotus seed

1L (4cups) water

2 Tbsp rock sugar (adjust according to preference)
Almond Milk/Evaporated Milk to drizzle all over (optional) ♥

Method:
Place all ingredients, except rock sugar and almond milk into a slow cooker.
Cook for 6hours.
Place in rock sugar the last 20mins.
Can be served warm or chill for cold dessert.
Drizzle over a thick almond milk and serve.

~|Notes|~
♥ if using almond powder, use lesser water to form a thicker milk.
♥♥ coconut milk can be replaced with almond milk if desired.

Almond milk will surely make a difference if you're a fan of bitter almonds.

As it carries a strong pungent perfumy scent which some people find it unpleasant (I heard from many people saying that it smells like cockroach but.. I never knew what cockroach smelt like, I wonder how they did!), could always replace it with evaporated or coconut milk. For me, I would like a good drizzle of it!

This is something cooling for the hot weather and hasma is believed to be good for complexion. Otherwise, it's a great luxurious chilled dessert after a heavy meal.

Here we go again.

2010-06-01T16:23:00.006+08:00

It was all, at the back of the mind, somewhere within which lies the memories of childhood.
We were strangers, when we met. By the judgment of age, at a two month old, I was incredibly harmless. The only self defense was deafening people around with the loudest cry.

Despite the distance, I would still make time to drive over my god family's place where my minds would set free. Free from thinking. It's comfort when you don't have to think before you talk, make funny face expressions and laugh till you cry. At the same time I love listening to stories, of what I did during my younger days, where I honestly can't remember..

There was this fading memory of me, sitting on the floor between two chairs where a blanket lays right above me. I would sit in the 'tent' and start playing masak-masak (cooking with toys) like every kid would enjoy.

Wrapping Method
(recipe here)

Step 1 : Rinse beancurd sheet and place onto a deep bowl.
Step 2 : Place in braised ingredients, shiitake mushroom laying them up side down.
Step 3 : Stack on vegetables
Step 4 : Stack on soft beancurd skin rolls (dau bao, 豆包)
Step 5 : Pull the overlaying beancurd sheet from opposite sides and tie a knot. Tie another knot, on another opposite side, forming an "X".
Step 6 : Cover the bowl with a serving dish.
Step 7 : Invert the bowl and the serving dish, letting the beancurd pocket fall on the dish.
Step 8 : Remove bowl.
Step 9 : Using a pair of scissors, cut an "X" opening on the beancurd sheet.
Step 10 : Fold out, ready to get into the steamer!

Never thought that the girl who used to be so intimidated by putting on the fire on the stove would learn how to cook.
My mum is a picky Chinese food eater. As hard as I try to impress her, I think this dish won a place in her heart. She chose to remake it for pot luck telling me "You cook, I supervise."

A little tweak on the difference in ingredients this time. Water chestnuts was the icing on the cake. The crunch in it remained after being steamed and it was a sweet contrast to the oyster sauce soaked into the shiitake mushrooms. Also, some soft beancurd sheet rolls (dau bao, 豆包)
Other than that, recipe is the same from the previous.

Not your regular cinnamon rolls

2010-05-29T14:18:00.023+08:00

Blogging started a year ago. As far as I can remember, I was struggling through college hoping for this day to come, I yearn and dreamt of it every night and day as work flooded me with emotional distress, and time forbade tears..

...today finally came.

I would probably be more into artisan bread making. I love the rustic look, crusty on the outside and soft in the inside, but to shape something up for people at home isn't easy. They prefer breads and buns which are soft textured, and mostly still reluctant to accept wholewheat in their breads.

Inspired by pumpkin kaya, I decided to tweak the recipe into a custard filling. Kaya, coconut caramel jam, traditionally cooked over double boiler for hours with eggs until it thickens to form a paste-like custard to spread on bread. Very popular favorites among Asians. Thinking of the idea of roti bakar (grilled bread), melting butter and kaya in it makes me drool.
However, with the distinct fragrance of coconut, it might have covered the natural sweet taste of pumpkin, and because I have fallen in love with the taste of pumpkin, I experimented a quicker and healthier alternative.

Pumpkin Custard Rolls

Sweet Bread Dough:

200g high protein flour
50g wholemeal flour
10g milk powder
20g sugar
6g salt

3g (1tsp) instant yeast
150g warm water

20g butter

custard filling
some walnuts/pumpkin seeds, toasted
some milk to glaze

Method:
Sprinkle yeast over warm water and let it sit for 5mins.
Mix flours, milk powder, sugar and salt together.

Pour in yeast mixture into the dry ingredients and knead for 15mins, until dough starts to form,
not sticking to the sides of the bowl.
Add in butter and continue to knead for 10mins until dough is smooth and springy.
Cover bowl with a cling wrap and let it proof for 40mins, until it rises twice it's size.

Dust work surface, hands and rolling pin with flour. Roll dough into a rectangle about 12 x 9 inch.
Cover with a towel and let it rest for 10mins.
Spread pumpkin custard filling on top generously and sprinkle over chopped walnuts.

Roll it up just like rolling up a swiss roll.
Using a serrated knife, divide into 8.
Place them into a greased 9inch spring form pan.
Cover with a wet towel and let it rest for another 40mins.

Brush the top with some milk/egg wash.
Preheat oven to 200C. Bake for 20-25min until the top browns evenly.

Pumpkin Custard Filling:

250g of pumpkin puree
10g custard powder
10g sugar

Method:
To make pumpkin puree, dice pumpkins into cubes. Steam pumpkin for 15mins or until they are tender.
Drain away water, mash/blend pumpkins.
In a saucepan, measure custard powder and sugar. Add in pumpkin puree and stir until they're well mixed.
Turn on low heat and slowly cook (it took me about 15mins), until it is thick and smooth.
As pumpkin looses it's water content, they will shrink about half portion.
Set aside to cool.

~|Notes|~

♥ parchment paper for the bottom of the pans which was a huge mistake because pumpkin custard sticks to the paper.
Grease pans instead.
♥♥ When cooking pumpkin custard, cook at low heat and keep stirring to avoid sticking to the pan.
♥♥♥ Place a ramekin filled with water in the oven when baking the buns to provide steam, optional.

The soft interior of the buns, with the most nutritious naturally sweet pumpkin custard locked in between the rolls. This really isn't the usual cinnamon rolls for breakfast, isn't it?

And a very stingy portion of wholemeal.. because I'm a wimp.

one egg, two eggs, three..

2010-05-27T19:26:00.007+08:00

An egg cake never quite left an impression to me.
It was made out of eggs, flour and sugar.
Yet they sell the most traditional Steamed Sponge Cake (Ma Lai Ko / Malay Cake) and Steamed Egg Cake (Ji Dan Gao/ Gai Dan Gou / 雞蛋糕) at the morning market, packed in little plastic bags. I wondered if anyone buys them.

Out of curiosity, I made them on that same day itself. This recipe might not be the very traditional way of making Steamed Egg Cake (aka Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake), takes a little more effort separating the eggs but would it have made a difference? I couldn't compare as I've never made them in the traditional way.
I mean, how good could eggs, flour and sugar get?

The texture, was different from the normal sponge cake you would imagine it to be. It wasn't soft, like melt-down soft. Biting into it was fluffy and bouncy (qiu qiu/kiu kiu).
I couldn't help saying it, "Qiu Qiu wan lehh.."
As good as eggs can get, it has a different fragrance once it's steamed into a cake.

Steamed Egg Cake Recipe (Ji Dan Gao/ Gai Dan Gou / 雞蛋糕)

2 egg yolks
30ml vegetable oil
120ml fresh milk ♥

125g cake/superfine flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
75g caster sugar

Method:
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk egg yolks and gradually add in vegetable oil and soy milk.
Whisk until frothy, then add in sifted dry ingredients.

Beat egg whites until frothy then add in cream of tartar.
Gradually add in sugar and whisk till stiff peaks formed.

Fold a portion of egg whites into egg yolk mixture until well blended.
Fold egg yolk batter into the rest of the egg whites.
Gently mix them together without losing it's volume.

Steam at high heat for 20-25mins, or until cooked.

~|Notes|~
♥ replaced fresh milk for soy.
♥♥ would steam at a shallow pan to reduce cooking time.

I sandwiched some brown sugar kaya in between the layers

The below layer was black sesame, but I wouldn't recommend it. The bottom layer tasted weird to me.

Made this cake during noon, and it was a rainy evening when I took the photo. The sun wasn't treating me very well on that day, sorry for the unappealing pictures..

one of my favourite

2010-05-26T21:41:00.005+08:00

"I do."

You won't believe me. Counting the times I posted about eating healthy, how my salads tasted so good the way it is, and how my friends tease me saying that I eat nothing but bird food.
They didn't much bother me.
I eat what I eat, and it's always at my own will.

Being so stubborn, it's hard to change what I think as soon as I have decided. Same goes for everything.

I personally am not a fan of pork belly..
but if you would ask me whether I like eating tung poh yuk (Chinese Stewed Pork)..
Yes, but would you believe me?

I don't like the fatty part of the meat. It's so jelly like it feels scary biting into it.
But I clearly understand people who do and I have nothing against it.
This classic Chinese braised dish is always done with the pork belly cuts where (people say), the
fats just melts in your mouth. I don't think I'm curious enough to try how it feels like but I'm sure many of you could tell me so.

I wouldn't say it's a Traditional Tung Poh Yuk recipe as Mum didn't use any spices in her recipe.
Anyhow, if I were to make this, I will still do it her way because it tastes soooo delicious :)

How could I resist.. yum yum :)

Chinese Braised Pork Belly, 東坡肉 (wannabee)
(Mum's Recipe)

600g pork belly, cut into pieces
4 stalks of spring onions, use white portions only
5 slices of ginger
3 clovesof garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp cooking oil

seasoning:
1Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp fine salt
1 Cup of water
2 Tbsp Chinese Cooking Wine
a dash of white pepper

thickening:
1/2 Tbsp cornflour dissolved in 1Tbsp of water

Method:
Heat up a pot with oil, saute ginger, garlic and spring onion until fragrant.
Add pork and stir fry for 5mins.
Add in the rest of the ingredients and seasoning except for Chinese Cooking Wine.
Simmer for 50mins.

When pork is tender, add in cooking wine and pepper to taste.
To thicken the gravy, add in cornflour mixture.

yearning for savory crêpes.

2010-05-24T21:56:00.007+08:00

There were times when I feel too lazy to cook, just whipping up something so simple, throw it into the wok or oven to cook while I laid-back to read my book.
Often enough, still wanting to make some mess.

Times when laziness takes over me, savory oatmeal comes in the picture. Once you've tasted rolled oats, you would eventually fall in love with it and not want to take instant oats ever again. It's a very different chewy texture and the fragrance which I love. I like to tug in bed with comfort in a bowl, on my lap top or watching my favourite movie!

I've been dreaming of crepes, and for a change - not the sweet ones.

Savory crepes. Really needed that.
Plus, mushrooms were ~~rotting~~ sitting in the fridge cause I've been saying that I want to make mushroom soup for weeks and that never happened.
Nope. Didn't pick myself up to do it. How disappointing. Mum's on a diet and didn't want to ruin it.

By the way, can mushrooms rot? They are fungus to begin with. All they could get is pretty wrinkly and dirtier looking.

Savory Crêpes
(adapted from smitten kitchen)
makes 6-8 large crepes

2 large egg
180ml milk
120ml water
40g butter, melted

120g plain flour
1/2 tsp of salt

some butter/oil to coat the pan

Method:
Put the wet ingredients : egg, milk water and butter together and whisk.
Add in plain flour and salt. Mix with a fork until no lumps can be seen.
Leave the crepe batter to rest in the fridge for an hour or up to 48 hours.

Heat up a non-stick pan. Coat with butter or oil.
With a ladle, spoon crepe batter into the center of the pan. Quickly lift up the pan from heat
and swirl to let batter spread evenly. Cook at low/medium heat for about 30 seconds and flip.

The first one is meant to go to the bin (and sometimes the second one too).

Repeat steps until batter finishes.

Black Pepper Mushroom Filling

200g Swiss Brown / White Button Mushrooms, sliced
2 large onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp Mascarpone cheese / Fresh cream

freshly grounded black pepper
salt to taste
olive oil

Method:
Heat up a sauce pan with olive oil. Throw in sliced onions, saute until it starts to brown.
Put in garlic and stir fry.
Place in mushrooms, stir fry until turns brown. Add in cream/cheese, let it simmer.
Add in salt and freshly grounded black pepper.

Serve on top of crepe bedded with some fresh lettuce.

what's your comfort food like?

a test of patience.

2010-05-21T16:08:00.011+08:00

No one would have believed that I would have the patience for this.
Well, this time I think I've underestimated myself.
I was up for the challenge. Going through everyday at my pace, which is pretty slow right now.
Taking everything as it comes and enjoying every moment I have, wishing time would stop for me as I'm having such a wonderful time ~~doing nothing~~.

I have forgotten when was the last time I felt this way. It was right after SPM, no holidays for me as I marched towards my hectic college life. Always the one rushing to finish, where everything was a task hoping it will soon be over.

Baking an Indonesian Layer Cake is very time consuming. Because it was my first, I decided to make a small one to try it out. Just didn't feel like risking twenty lives (egg yolks) and a pound of butter for a trial. It wouldn't be good, for my pocket, and for ~~own consumption~~ the poor chickens.
This cake is definitely high fat in content, so make sure to watch your portion :P

This recipe uses egg whites beaten till stiff peaks - which gives the cake a little more volume compared to only using egg yolks.
Maybe using egg yolks would give it a more chewy texture? Have anyone tried recipe with just yolks?
There are many versions of recipe for this cake, which I find some quite ridiculous for me to do, like a whole can of condensed milk with fourteen yolks and a pound of butter for an awfully small cake.
Couldn't tell if it would taste much better but this version of the cake was good enough for me. It did taste like the ones I've been dreaming for day and night since the last time Mum bought some for me from Indonesia. Afterall, it has always been my favourite cake!

It's not hard to whip up this cake, it just takes alot of time, love and patience.

Indonesian Layer Cake Recipe
(adapted from Do What I Like)

250g unsalted butter
60g caster sugar

10 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
1 Tbsp brandy/rum
2 Tbsp condensed milk

66g cake flour
1 tsp mixed spice (use a good one)
1/4 tsp baking powder

4 egg whites
30g sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
Preheat oven to 190C.
Grease and line the bottom of a 7inch square tin.
Place the empty tin into the oven for 5mins.

Cream butter and 60g sugar until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and 60g of sugar until frothy and pale in colour. Add in brandy and condensed milk. Whisk to blend.

Fold in the sifted flour and egg yolks mixture alternately into the butter mixture. (I used an electric beater on low speed).

In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites until frothy. Add in sugar and cream of tartar. Continue to whisk at high speed until stiff peaks.

Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the butter batter. Gradually fold in the rest without losing much of it's volume.

Spoon about 2 Tbsp of batter into the hot tin. Spread evenly.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven until golden brown.

Remove from oven. Use a fork to prick some holes on the cake.
Continue to spoon another 2 Tbsp of batter into the tin and spread evenly.
Switch oven to grill mode. Bake until top has browned. Repeat process with grill mode until all mixture is used up.

Remove the cake from tin and set aside to cool, placing the cake on a wire rack, up side down. Cake will fall off once cooled.

~|Notes|~
♥ For a better effect : when baking last 3 layers of the cake, but tin on bottom rack of the oven. Bake until golden brown and cook, it would take a longer time.
♥♥ Do not line the sides of the tin with parchment paper, I did that and regretted so. The paper tend to come off after some time, yielding an even smaller cake.
♥♥♥ Use 2 heaping tablespoons of batter. The previous layer should be completely covered by the batter. Initially used 2 Tbsp and the layers were not distinct.
♥♥♥♥ When spreading the batter onto the hot previous layer of the cake, batter tends to melt and turn watery, which is perfectly fine.

My god sis and mum have been pestering me to make another one for them, and I would surely double up the recipe the next time incase they fight for it again.

No one takes a photo of a beautiful layered cake teared into pieces like this, but this is how I eat my layer cakes.
It's funny how I had the patience to stand infront of my oven for four long hours and bake the cake with a smile on my face, yet not have any patience to take a good photo of my beloved cake. Why lar..?

food and friendships.

2010-05-20T01:30:00.005+08:00

Although it has been quite some time ago, where we all decided to meet up, blogging and catching up brought us all near, that day stayed clear in our memories. Just like yesterday.

It was very thoughtful of Sonia to have handed us Bak Kut Teh from Klang. No, I didn't have to drive all the way there for it and I get a free post!
See, I killed ~~two stones with one bird, eh no,~~ two birds with one stone!

Thanks for the yummy delicious bak kut teh. I shared it with my family.

I could never resist having them with you tiao, soaked in the delicious soup! *drools*

my cup of tea

2010-05-18T23:48:00.008+08:00

Living in a class with a bunch of jokers was a good thing. It made the class more lively and fun to be in during the boring lectures..

As girls were the minority, the boys would always tease.
Being the usual drama queen, and an honest one I would always look at them rolling my eyes,
"You're not my cup of tea", as we all giggle away with our cold jokes which did come in handy during times when everyone is about to doze off in the class.. especially after lunch hours.

"Not you're cup of tea, coffee, can?"..

This ice cream was made some time ago. I was inspired by Elin's green tea ice cream, and I thought I wanted to try something different. I am more of a black tea person. The only thing I would drink during breakfast, when dining out was nothing but teh peng (iced milk tea), since I was three!
Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to feed kids ice in the morning but I think I could remember insisting. I wasn't the hot milo person either.
Things hasn't changed after all these years. Well maybe just a slight one, because teh-si (teh-c) seems to be my regular pick now.
It's a very common coffee shop language, teh peng meant tea with sweetened condensed milk, and teh-si (teh-c) meant tea with unsweetened evaporated milk and sugar.
It makes a difference, really. When I found out condensed milk was made up of a huge amount of palm oil, and they aren't really made of milk. They were more like sweeteners.
Okay, let's not stroll to far.

The weather has been crazy these days, and fortunately I have some ice creams prepared for a ~~rainy~~ sunny day.

Milk Tea Ice Cream (奶茶雪糕)

2 Cups milk (I used low fat), divided
10g corn starch
3 Tbsp sugar
2-3Tbsp Black Tea (I used BOH tea leaves)

1/3C heavy cream, whipped
1 tsp icing sugar

Method:
Place 1 1/2 cup of milk and sugar in a pot and bring it to a simmer.
Add in tea leaves and simmer at a lower heat.
Add the rest of the milk (1/2 cup) with corn starch and stir until combined and add this mixture into the pot to cook, stirring at all times.
Turn off heat as soon as mixture starts to simmer.
Sieve the mixture into a glass bowl and leave it in the fridge to chill overnight.

Churn chilled mixture together with whipped cream and icing sugar in an ice cream maker according to manufacturers' directions.

~|Notes|~
♥ substituted heavy cream with non-dairy, personally think dairy would have been better but I didn't have any in hand.
♥♥ non-dairy whipping cream is sweetened, icing sugar should be omitted in this case.

As I was saying, this ice cream was made some time ago so what has caused the huge delay?
Homemade ice cream tends to melt alot quicker than the store bought ones. The creaminess of this ice cream makes it irresistible and I couldn't help myself but to sink my teeth in before it starts to melt.

Opps.. I did it again.

not there yet.

2010-05-17T16:20:00.009+08:00

The most memorable thing, was the steamed bun I had at my favourite dim sum place. It was pillow soft and fluffy. The filling was creamy, sweet and salty. I thought the taste played together quite well. It is a shame that the dim sum place don't serve this flavour anymore. I tried to order for it a few times, making sure that it was really gone from their menu. The new waiters didn't know what it was, at all. Maybe it was a big hit only to me because I loved the flavour combination alot which might not have interest the rest, being the -not so traditional dim sum.

They were completely forgotten. Gone.

Ever since I learnt how to make my own steamed buns, I have been wanting to make these.
I failed badly the first time. My generous kill towards my steamed buns, cocoa powder.

Plus, the dough was too wet to be handled.
I haven't lost. I attempted with another recipe. This time, being really afraid to add too much of cocoa powder - it was too little this time.

The second attempted recipe was from my all-time trusted recipe site, the Adventures of Giggle.
The steamed buns were soft and fluffy.
The cream corn filling was just not custardy enough, not quite sweet nor salty to have triggered and gave me the 'umph'. I guess I was playing safe, due to being severely discouraged from the previous failure.
Concluded that - not chocolaty enough, not custardy enough, not sweet and salty enough, not bao-ish enough.
Marking them down for future improvement.

Anyhow, I would try this again when my cravings for it strikes me again.
The posted recipe is for my own note because I want to attempt it again!

Basic 'Smiling' Steamed Bun Recipe
(adapted from the Adventures of Giggle)

4g instant yeast
70g water

140g cake flour
60g wheat starch (澄面粉 / tang min fan)
60g sugar
20g oil

7g baking powder
10g water

Method:
Mix yeast in water. Slowly add mixture into cake flour, wheat starch, sugar and oil. Knead to mix well.
Let the dough rest for 90min, dough will be abit dry at this moment.

Mix baking powder in 10g water, slowly add into the dough and knead for at least 10min to make sure baking powder is evenly knead into the dough (if not there will be brown spots according to Wendy).

Divide the dough into 25g for petite sized buns.
Dust working surface, hands and rolling pin with some flour.
Roll the respective dough to flatten. Spoon in filling at the center of the dough.
Fold and seal the sides together.

Steam at high heat for 10mins for petite buns (12-15mins for larger buns).

~|Notes|~
♥ cream corn filling is to be cooked to further thicken adding a little salt and sugar to taste, the next time should add a little custard powder/corn flour.
♥♥ added in 1 heaping tsp of cocoa powder + 2 tsp of hot water, mixed into a paste, next time should add more cocoa powder.

These steamed buns were perfect match with my 10 grain porridge for the morning. Nutritiously satisfying... hey, that sounds familiar, no?

an awful mess.

2010-05-15T14:36:00.007+08:00

Mothers' Day was last week, so why have I not gotten over it yet?
Well, with the same reason as Sonia - where my aunts couldn't make it to come over last weekend they all decided to postpone it to this week, after all it's Mothers' Day. It's their day so they get to decide. Infact, they can make it everyday at their own will ~~going on a strike to torture us~~.

My mum told me she wanted yogurt chiffon cake, ~~and I rebelled~~. I have previously made a mango yogurt cake just for her during Mothers' Da y.
I came up with a dozen of ~~excuses~~ reasons of why I couldn't do so. I didn't have enough large chiffon pans (I only had one), and they take a long time to cook and to cool. Besides, I hadn't time for it this week.

After seeing so much of steamed moist chocolate cake and how good it was, and how reluctant I was to make it due to the amount of butter and evaporated milk, I gave in. More over, I wont be here for the steamboat party tonight to taste the sinful chocolate cake anyway.

It's a curse. It happens everytime I deal with chocolate, the mess I mean.
Also, it turned out really ugly. First, it was the cake batter which was so runny, a part of it seeped through my springform pan and I quickly saved it by wrapping aluminum foil all over, like wrapping up a mummy. Then it appeared to be really short and uneven because I just dumped it in the wok to steam without making sure it's perfectly horizontal in place.
Next was the problem dealing with chocolate ganache. Chocolate all over the place. I've never quite dealt with white chocolate and what I didn't know was it was very runny too! As soon as I poured it in the piping bag it was drooling all over. So now you know why the words were terribly piped. Not that I was doing any good in cake decos but the runny melted white chocolate obviously didn't make life easier.

When I presented it to mum, "It's an awfully ugly cake." I claimed.
Mum replied, "Hai gam ge lah. Engineers can't do art work."
I hope it didn't offend anyone else out there but I felt like it was some kind of compliment.
That's why I didn't do some art and craft in the first place. I didn't have the magic hands to deal with it.
(FYI - Hai gam ge lah (cantonese) meant it's like that)

Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe
(adapted from Cooking Crave)

180g butter
200g evaporated milk
200g caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp Rum (optional)

100g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:
Heat up steamer.
Combine caster sugar, butter and evaporated milk in a saucepan. Stir at low heat until sugar dissolves and butter melts completely. Remove from heat, set aside to cool.
Beat in eggs, vanilla extract and rum whisking with a fork.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder together. Pour in the wet ingredients and whisk with a fork till combined.

Pour into a grease/lined round 8" baking pan. Wrap the top with aluminum foil. Place onto prepared steamer, cover the lid and steam for 45mins. Cool the cake in the pan before decorating.

Chocolate Milk Ganache
(enough to frost one cake)

75ml evaporated/fresh milk
175g dark/milk chocolate, chopped coarsely
10g butter

Method:
Bring milk and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Turn off heat and stir in chocolate and stir until completely melted. Pour over cooled cake.
Chill for at least 2hours.

You can read more of the steamed moist chocolate cake at Jane's, Sonia's and Amy's blog. I wont be commenting much about it since I won't be able to taste it (some kind of blessing), but I was licking my saucepan clean when I made the ganache which was absolutely chocolaty and yummy.

crunchy treats.

2010-05-14T10:08:00.005+08:00

Still remember how the mountain of cookies in their jars were flooding the table at my living hall. After awhile, they all started to taste the same. Those pineapple tarts, sesame seed cookies, walnut and rosemary.. alot of store bought ones.. and the famous a lmond florentines were long time gone. Crispy, crunchy or melt in the mouth didn't much matter at that time.
We were immune.
It was a part of CNY, I guess - getting immune to cookies, I mean. Our tongues worked so hard to differentiate after awhile all the cookie tasted, sweet.
Pineapple tarts tasted like pineapple tarts. And the rest, tasted like.. cookies.

Who would have known that I never recovered from the cookie binge eating. I just needed to munch on something, and I wanted chocolate chip cookie. I usually like my cookies crunchy and these really are.

I saw these crunchy cookies which claim to taste like the ones in 'Famous Amos'. I would only dare to say that they're good and really addictive to eat. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to post the recipe, but it has been a great pleasure that FoongMood was willing to share the recipe with me after I left her a comment. Thankyou so much :)

My cousin said she's going to make these during her holidays after testing the ones I made. Does that convince you now?

never felt this way.

2010-05-12T15:45:00.006+08:00

It feels so free having nothing to carry upon my shoulders. No work, no college, no assignments, no due dates, no traffic jams...

Yes, I'm pretty much in your face now but it's been such a long time struggling through every single day. People (yes I meant almost everyone), enjoys college. How often my course mates and I would sit down and complain why we don't. It's a tough subject, and we all didn't know it took so much. So much of patience, time and sleepless nights.
Complains remain as they are, we knew we didn't regret this decision (well, for most of us).
We all had determination.

It's all over, ~~temporarily~~. I feel free. So free I don't even dare to imagine.
It doesn't feel right not having a book in my hand, no reports to write. As my brain slows down to think. No numbers. Just sitting back, reading novels. Oh let's not talk about those days where I used to read these chick flick stories like PS. I Love You, and that good ol' Twilight.
I kind of miss reading (finally it's reading and not browsing). Reading ~~recipe~~ books and flipping through my favourite magazines.

That's when I read that salmon comes one of our superfood. They're healthy and delicious. How many kind of food could lay in both categories?
Salmon is one of the 7 Best food for women too! Another reason to tell mum why we should get more salmon..

They're so simple to make. I just pan fried them on a non stick pan without any oil, as it cooks the oil oozes out from the salmon. Ofcourse you would like to marinade your beautiful salmon with some rosemary or other herbs, well season it with salt and pepper. Then I fried some sweet yellow onions, celery and carrots with the reserved oil from the salmon.
To save all the trouble you could bake them too, but I prefer pan frying because I love watching it turn golden on the outside and staying juice within. Give it a little lemon juice before serve.
Simply satisfying.

What you think about my lazy cooking for today? tee hee =)

Wheat Bran Banana Muffin, I've lost it.

2010-05-11T20:31:00.007+08:00

Have you ever felt so frustrated about something, you just give up on fixing the same problems over and over again?

At the same time, giving up on something meant starting something new, or empty.

If you would have realize, I decided to remove the previous comment widget I had been using. There, goes all the comments from all Bitter Sweet Flavours' precious readers. It was a hard decision for me but I couldn't let the problem go on as I might lose even more. They were not retrievable and I feel so guilty having to do this.

I have lost the patience to fix it over and over again. I'm dreadfully sorry to all of you out there who has been commenting. I appreciate all the comments, and if you happen to try out any of the recipes, I hope you could leave some feedback to share your experience too :)

Here is a recipe, I have tweaked from many different recipes to get the best banana muffins which I adore.

Wheat Bran Banana Muffin

180g all purpose flour
60g wheat bran
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt

30g butter, melted
60g brown sugar
1 large egg
160ml milk
4 medium sized bananas, mashed (about 1 1/4 Cup)

Method:
Preheat oven to 190C. Line muffin tins of 12 with paper cups or lightly grease.

Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, wheat bran, baking powder, baking soda, salt). Set aside.
Whisk together wet ingredients (butter, brown sugar, egg, milk, mashed banana).

Pour wet ingredients and mix into dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Stir until just combined. Divide into muffin tins and bake for 20mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

Serve warm.

~|Notes|~
♥ To reheat muffins, simply place it 190C for 5mins.

It's a great tea time/breakfast muffins. I like the ooey gooey centered with chunks of mashed bananas. If you're a wheat person like me, you're ought to love the slight crunch on the surface and biting into the tender fragrant muffins.

Please forgive me, for I had to remove the previous post comments..

more Chinese cooking..

2010-05-10T20:07:00.011+08:00

It feels rather unusual. After lots of feasting, mum and I have decided on a diet!
A diet feels like... emptiness.
Having a company to diet is a necessity, especially someone very close to. Still get to laugh about and eat the same food, plus being there to support and motivate each other to go on.

Leading to the most simplest cooking at home.
It feels very uneasy as there is not much to do in the kitchen, where creativity is being bounded. Yet we know that there are endless possibilities of blending flavours together.

There are different things which mum cooks and I never knew what it was called. Google gave the answers most of the time and I think this is it, ~~wild leek bulbs.~~ In Chinese, it is called Kiu Tau (qiao tou/荞头) - what mum told me, and like every other time I would ask, "in English."

[Correction: it's called Allium Chinense, apparently there is no English name for Kiu Tau.
Thankyou, Wendy for correcting me]

It is just a leek we find in our market place. It tastes just like lovely sweet large onions, and I suppose they cook the same way too. Really sweet and crunchy at the bottom and the top was a little lesser than chives, I would say more of spring onions.

Pan-Fried Egg Tofu with Kiu Tau

600g of kiu tau, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tube japanese egg tofu, cut into thick slices
cooking oil

sauce:
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup of water

thickening:
corn starch dissolved in water

Method:
In a frying pan, heat up enough oil and pan fry slices of japanese egg tofu on both sides until golden brown. Set aside.

In a wok, heat up oil, saute garlic until fragrant. Add in kiu tau and stir fry to mix with garlic. Add in sauce ingredients. Simmer until the bottom of the leeks start to turn translucent.
Pour in thickening mixture and cook for another 1-2mins.

Place on top of pan-fried tofu. Serve with rice.

The leeks cooks down into less than half the portion just like any other veg. It's my first time pan frying a very delicate tofu and it was pretty much a challenge to me. Also, adding some thinly sliced lean meat would probably make it real good too!
Thinking of these baby steps in learning how to cook makes me happy.

Look at that nicely steamed fish! I'm going to miss mum's cooking...

for Mother's Day

2010-05-08T15:52:00.007+08:00

Mothers' Day is certainly a reason to feast and celebrate.
This year, I decided something refreshing and low fat.

Feeling the same as HHB, I really needn't to put the extra calories in dessert. I loved her idea of Mango Yogurt Pudding Cake, and couldn't get my eyes off her cake. It was stunning, with so much fresh fruits on top!

If you would compare, yes I was pretty stingy with my fruits. I couldn't cut too much fruits to put on top as I needed to fridge the cake till mum comes home. To be safe I topped the cake with an extra jelly layer so the topping would not turn colour.

The oreo cookies at the bottom turned soggy, and initially I thought I should have replaced it with a thin layer of sponge, but it seems like mum liked the soggy crushed oreo cookies. She told me she liked the base! ...and ofcourse she really loved the refreshing mango pudding.
I'm really glad she liked it!

Mango Yogurt Pudding Cake Recipe
(adapted from Happy Home Baking)

Base:
6 pairs of crushed oreo cookies (or thicker if desired), cream removed
40g of butter, melted

Pudding:
300g fresh mango (weigh after peeled and seeded)
1 passion fruit juice (omitted)
2 Tbsp of caster sugar (omitted)
200g plain/flavoured yogurt

1 1/2 Tbsp gelatin powder
4 Tbsp of water

fresh fruits to decorate

Method:
for biscuit base,
Mix oreo cookie crumbs and butter together and press them firmly onto a 6" round pan (with removable base).

for pudding,
Sprinkle gelatin into water and let it sit for 10mins.
Place it on a pot of simmering water and stir until dissolved completely.
Remove from heat and set aside to cool

Blend together mangoes, passion fruit juice, sugar and yogurt. Puree until smooth. Add in gelatin solution into mixture. Stir and mix well. Pour mixture on top of the cookie base, cover with a cling wrap.
Let it chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

to serve, use a knife to loosen sides of the pudding to unmould.
decorate with fresh fruits as desired.

To all mothers out there, it has not been an easy job working full time - all the sweat, pain and tears through all these years.
Give yourselves a day off from dish washing and cooking. Time to sit back, relax and let your kids do the job for you. I would happily mess up the kitchen for my Mum too :)

Wishing you a wonderful Mothers' Day!

Cranberry Yogurt Chiffon Cake, just like cotton..

2010-05-05T16:26:00.009+08:00

There's feather and there's pillows.. now what was I missing?
Some cotton?
Sometimes, its just the way I like to visualize comfort. Comfort in sweets.
Surprisingly, the softest textured and most comforting are the lightest. Well, for me.

They're casually served -and I don't need a reason to have a second (or thirds)..

Frankly, this is my third attempt. First one failed terribly, and the second, wasn't as good. Practice makes perfect! I'm still on my way to a perfect chiffon!

Cranberry Yogurt Chiffon Cake
(8-9" / 20-21cm chiffon pan)

4 egg yolks
40g castor sugar
40g corn oil
120g plain yogurt (or flavoured)
2 Tbsp of orange juice (or lemon)
zest of an orange (or lemon)
50g cranberries (can be doubled)

120g cake flour
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

5 egg whites
50g castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
Preheat oven to 175C.

Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).
Using a hand whisk, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until slightly pale.
Whisk in oil, yogurt, orange juice and zest.
Fold in sifted ingredients into the batter.

Using an electric beater, whisk egg whites until frothy. Add in cream of tartar and whisk at high speed. Gradually add in sugar, continue whisking until it reach stiff peaks.

Fold 1/3 of egg whites into egg yolk batter and gently fold in until no whites can be seen.
Fold the egg yolk batter into the rest of the egg whites. Add in dried cranberries and continue to fold until incorporated.

Pour batter into a 20/21cm chiffon mould. Give it a light tap on the table to release air bubbles.
Bake for 40-45mins.

Immediately invert the cake and let it cool completely (about 2-3hours) before removing it from the pan.

~|Notes|~
♥ sugar was reduced to a total of 75g
♥♥ cream of tartar can be replaced with 1Tbsp of lemon juice
♥♥♥ lemon juice was omitted, I used the whole small tub of yogurt (125g) instead.
♥♥♥♥ keep watch at the 30th minute, if the top of the cake browns too quickly cover with a foil and continue to bake at required time.

As convincing as it seems, a yogurt lover would definitely love this cake. Be it with or without cranberries. It didn't much matter. There's just an extra something in yogurt cakes. People might not beable to taste it but it's just in the texture, just like my previous yogurt sponge cake which did the same magic.
Grandma suggested I make this kind of cake for Birthdays, and well.. I'm not to sure about that but I just took it as a compliment.
Same goes for Mum. She asked me if she could bring them to work to share.
"Yeah ofcourse, I'm done taking pictures."

LOL. So typical of me. So were all the baking for consumption purpose or to eat with my eyes?
I'm very happy with this chiffon cake. It did please many people, according to mum.

Thumbs up to this recipe, it's brilliant! Absolutely yummy.
Ofcourse, I would not take all the credit for this. Thankyou, Blessed Homemaker for this really good recipe. I've finally mastered chiffon! :)

Bitter Sweet Flavours turns 1!

2010-05-03T14:20:00.013+08:00

I've started baking, a year ago. No wait, I've started blogging a year ago.
So was it baking first, or blogging first?
It would be a battle between the chicken and the egg story. Which one came first?

I didn't exactly baked from scratch on my first very successful brownies. They were just so moist and nutty in flavour I could still remember my first bite. They were crowd pleasing, and I was pleased by the crowd.

Blogging was not new to me, then. I've always blogged since high school, and every time I stopped because it was pretty much neglected. I'm proud that I've gotten this far in baking and blogging. My interest never stayed as long as one like this.
I think,.. I really think, this time, its for real.. It's called passion.

Still, I make mistakes just like how my baby steps brought me this far. From baking a cake from a box, numerous disasters (and the courage to pick myself up after every), little simple cupcakes which managed to hold a smile on my face, the determination in rolling my perfect swissroll and where cooking comes along the way.

I can summarize it all in one sentence but there's too much to tell. Too much to tell you of how I love looking at recipe books now, in pots and pans which didn't matter to me for the past 18 years of my life. How I used to drag mum out from the cookware department when I started yawning as I told her how bored I was. Things have pretty much changed now. I'm the one dragging her in, and she's pretty scared of that ~~because I would start grabbing everything to the cashier counter~~!

On top of all that, it's not about ME. It was of realizing how much I love being committed into blogging after I've met wonderful strangers who more than willing to teach and share things I've never knew. Where I've changed my mind of the community. It's beautiful how we became friends.

Beancurd Pocket filled with
Braised Shiitake Mushrooms, Dried Scallops and Chinese Sausages
(serves 4)

1 piece beancurd sheet
16 pieces of dried shiitake mushroom

40g of dried scallops, soaked (reserve water)
50g of ginkgo nuts, halved
5~10g of black moss (fatt choy), rinsed

1 large carrot, sliced
1 medium broccoli flower, cut into florets
8 pieces of baby corn, sliced

2 small chinese saussages, sliced

1 whole garlic, chopped
cooking oil

Sauce:
1 1/2 Tbsp Oyster sauce
1/2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp sugar
3 bowls of water

thickening:
1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in water

Method:
Pre-soak mushroom for an hour or overnight.
Rinse mushrooms, place it in a pot, half filled with water. Bring to a boil then on low heat simmer for 2-3 hours, or until softened.
Drain water and rinse mushrooms again. Set aside.

Heat up wok and saute garlic until fragrant. Add in mushrooms and continue to cook. Pour in sauce ingredients, scallops with the reserved water and gingko nuts. Cover the wok and allow it to cook for 20-30mins.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables, chinese saussages and thickening.

Cut beancurd skin into a size, larger than a bowl. When beancurd is sitting in it, it should be large
enough to wrap the ingredients in it.
Give beancurd sheet a quick rinse. Quickly lay it into the bowl in place before it softens.

Return to the cooking mushrooms, add in black moss and thickening, stir until simmer.
Once cooked, fill half of the bowl laid with beancurd sheet.
Place the vegetables on top.
Wrap the beancurd sheet up (I tied a knot). Place a flat plate on top, covering the bowl and turn it up side down.
With a scissors, cut an "X", fold the beancurd sheet to a side to open it up like a 'pocket'. Lay in more vegetables and chinese sausages.
Steam at high heat for 7mins or until vegetables are cooked.

(p.s. : see a tweak of the recipe and step-to-step guide here)

After so much of blogging, and knowing that I cant cook, I made this. As mum came home from work, and watched the mess I made in the kitchen, she quickly grabbed hold onto Chinese sausages and said she want them in it. I have to tell you that mum's a very fussy eater and she finally praised my cooking! She said it was "very nice".. :)

This post, is mostly about me, so there is alot of 'I' written in the post..
and.. I would like to thank all of you who have been teaching, reading, commenting, motivating, supporting, sharing wonderful thoughts and recipes of yours. You're one of the most wonderful person I've met.

In a different perspective.

2010-05-01T22:34:00.008+08:00

When all the elderly talks about nutrition, this and that, why did it matter?
I used to wonder why grandma likes cooking pumpkin. They just didn't taste right.
The sweet and salty combo was just..

awkward.

The image of pumpkin, reminds me of Halloween, thus making it felt as if it was some kind of melon cooked in the most traditional Western way.. Heck, it just didn't felt right with rice.
Why am I posting this up again? I've been converted.
It tasted weird to me in the beginning, but I think I have sort of gotten used to that flavour and I am actually starting to like it. Not forgetting that pumpkins are very nutritious.
Yet, mother nature have given it such striking orange colour where I do see many Chinese Dim Sum restaurant selling these pumpkin pau and pumpkin kuihs for a new change.

Plating it in Chinese-style cooking is just like.. the Malaysian style of eating Durians with rice. Sounds very kampung style, and I doubt any of us do so despite the fact that we all know they taste really good together.

Braised Pumpkin with Dried Shrimps

1/2 Pumpkin (500g), diced
2 Tbsp dried shrimps (虾米), rinsed, soaked in water, drained

salt to taste
sugar to taste
3/4 - 1 cup of water

3 cloves of garlic, chopped
cooking oil

spring onion

Method:
Heat oil in a wok and saute garlic and dried shrimps.
Add in pumpkin, then water. Add in salt and sugar to taste.
Let water come to a simmer and cook until pumpkin is tender.

Sprinkle spring onion, serve warm.

Nothing too complicated. Hope you have a great weekend!

Chicken Floss Swiss Roll gives me the courage to go on.

2010-04-30T10:10:00.010+08:00

Simply just cause I felt like making it and finally managed to finish my chicken floss.

It has not been easy picking up courage to make swiss rolls again after countless times of failing. It's either they came without the skin, or they were too dry, or sometimes they just looked really ugly. The trick is to leave it in the oven till the surface has browned completely yet not dry. I personally think the separating egg method would give a softer cake compared whisking whole eggs together, from what I had done comparing the blueberry swiss roll and the chocolate log. Little work goes a long way.

These days I've been doing pretty much thinking. While I am still waiting for my results, there's nothing much I can do about it. Someday, I might realize the decision I have made was wrong or even regret it. Or maybe I would be proud of the decision I have made. I can't tell the future. It just felt the right thing to do now, and since I have decided my path, I shouldn't be afraid to face it. Mum had always let me make my own decisions, where I always bare the consequences of my own. It's the same this time.

Chicken Floss Swiss Roll

5 egg yolks
39g salad oil
31g milk

15g caster sugar
1g salt

2g baking powder
78g cake flour/superfine flour

5 egg whites
0.4g cream of tartar ( I used 1/4 tsp)
65g sugar

Chicken floss
Spring onion
Toasted White Sesame Seeds
Mayo

Method:

Preheat oven at 175C.
Line two shallow trays with parchment paper.
Sift cake flour and baking powder together.

In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, salad oil and milk together until slightly pale in colour and well blended.
Add in 15g caster sugar and salt. Add in sifted ingredients and whisk until incorporated.

In a clean large bowl, whisk egg whites at high speed till you see bubbles. (Make sure the bowl is clean, not a single drop of water, oil or egg yolk in it).
Add in cream of tartar and continue whisking at high speed.
When you see patters, layers of white cloud-like texture gradually add in 65g of sugar.
Keep whisking until egg whites reaches it's stiff peaks.
When you lift up the whisk, the eggs would remain upright, that's when it is done.
Put on low speed and continue to whisk for a minute or less just to stabilize the air bubbles.
Over whisking might cause cake to be dry so do not over do it either.

Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture using a spatula.
Whisk until blended then gradually pour the mixture back into the egg whites.
Fold in very gently and make sure not it does not lose too much of it's volume.

Pour onto prepared pans, using a spatula push batter into the edges and form an even surface.
Don't panic if you can't get it even, it will eventually flatten once it's cooked!

Wipe off excess moisture of spring onion with kitchen towel.
Sprinkle spring onion and toasted white sesame seeds on the top of the batter.
Give the pan a shake, left to right. Tap the pan on the table to release bubbles.
Bake for 12-15mins or until the surface starts to brown.
Turn heat to 190C and bake for another 3-5mins until surface turns fully brown.

Remove it from the oven and let it cool in the pan. (Don't forget to bake your second one!)
When the pan is cool enough to be touched, invert the cake onto another clean baking sheet.

Being the typical me, I spread a very stingy portion of mayo onto the surface of the cake.
Also, because my god sister warned me so that too much mayo would make the cake very 'geli' (disgusting) and would cause the cake to moisten, so being stingy is good.

Sprinkle over chicken floss and more spring onion! (Please be very generous on the spring onion, you can skip sesame, but don't skip spring onion. It gives the cake the kick!)

Roll it up with the help of a rolling pin behind the baking sheet.
Enclose the sides with a touch of mayo.

Owh, by the way, mum complained that she can't see chicken floss in my first roll, so I gave a

very generous portion on the second one. Bad move. Chicken floss is dry, so don't put too much. Also, too much of it would be too sweet and hard to roll up in the swissroll. I liked the first one. Give it a try :)

carried away..

2010-04-28T21:50:00.009+08:00

Oh, I can't tell you how long my to do lists are. Baking and cooking has been one big long one. Sometimes I feel so lost waiting for my results. There's so much waiting for me to do and I'm busy. Busy with what? Busy procrastinating.

You could have just guessed why I am not blogging these few days..

I've been so carried away with a Taiwanese drama. I never liked Korean and Taiwanese drama. They were all of sad love stories, the same old thing - tearing lovers apart.. blah blah blah.
But once you step one leg onto the boat, it's impossible to pull it out. It's my current addiction. Especially when they put real handsome and pretty cast in it. I would have just forgiven myself because I can't tell how long have I not really sat down and catch up with dramas, or my favourite cartoons! I used to love watching cartoons on Sunday mornings. I kind of miss that feeling now.

Turkey isn't something I look forward to eat or have. If you would ask me, I'm more interested in the carcass which would make a good broth. My family never miss roasting turkey during near or after Christmas, but I wouldn't wait till Christmas to have em!

This recipe was modified from a blogger friend of mine. She had always been listening to my comments in her blog and she does the same too. I'm so sorry I have not left much comments in all of your blogs these days. Just to let all of you know, I still am catching up with your blogs.
Thankyou so much, Wendy for providing me this recipe I have requested :)

Scallop and Dried Oyster Congee

1 1/2 Cup rice, rinsed
3 Litres water (adjust according to preference)

25 pieces small dried scallops, rinsed, soaked (reserve water)
8 large pieces dried oyster, rinsed, soaked, sliced
1/2 inch ginger
1 century egg, diced
some ginkgo nuts

seasoning:
turkey carcass
salt to taste
white pepper

garnishing:
spring onions
garlic and sesame oil

Method:

Bring water to boil in a pot. Add in rice and turkey carcass, bring it to a boil, then add in ginger, dried oyster, gingko nuts and dried scallop together with it's reserved water.
Lower heat and continue to boil for about 1 hour until rice gain a smooth texture. Remove carcass.
Give congee a stir and add more water if porridge is too thick. Add in salt and century egg and cook for another 10-15mins.

Serve warm with some spring onions, a drizzle of sesame and garlic oil and soy sauce to taste.

Back to my taiwan drama.. now where was I..

sunny Sunday churns.

2010-04-25T11:57:00.007+08:00

On a sunny Sunday morning, I just love being woken up by the sound of kids running around the park opposite my house. I'm a morning person. Have to grab a good breakfast to start a day, like every other day.

The weather has been recently been so warm. Walking to the freezer to open the doors and realize there's nothing there for me, doesn't disappoint me. It gives me an empty place to store something new.

I grabbed a new toy home months ago. It's not mine, it was my god sister's. Well, she have always treated me like a sister. I've known her since I was born. We share most of our pans if we need any. Now I feel like the ice-cream maker is half mine already. I bet when she reads this she would demand for it back. Ho ho ho..

When I asked mum of what ice-cream to make, she said "Durian". And I replied that I had done that already. Then she mentioned "Jagung" (which means corn, in Malay).
That's when I started wondering why it had always been a Malaysian thing to have sweet corn ice-cream. I don't see it in Haagen-Daz nor Baskin Robbins.

Since I've got some leftovers, might as well.
Actually, I would consider it as a gelato cause there is no cream in it. Fresh cream can be added if desired but the cream of corn had done it's job so it was needn't to add any cream, for me.
It was creamy enough. No eggs, no cream, such a guilt free treat on a sunday like this!

Sweet Corn Gelato (or Ice Cream)
(modified from David Lebovitz, makes about 3cups)

2 cups full cream milk/whole milk
2 heaping Tbsp caster sugar
2 Tbsp (16g) cornstarch

300g cream of corn (can add more)

Method:
Make a slurry by mixing cornstarch with 1/4cup of milk, mix until smooth.
Heat up the rest of the milk and sugar in a saucepan.
When it almost starts to boil, stir in cornstarch mixture. Cook at gentle simmer for 3mins, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, scrape into bowl and chill overnight.
Fold in cream of corn and churn gelato in ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instruction.

Yummy guilt free ice cream..

I have a Confession.

2010-04-23T16:18:00.010+08:00

It's the first and hopefully not last, class party. As students, we never got a chance to really call up everyone to have a meal together nor to make up for it. We were all very busy people. Busy doing the same things.

How could I miss out being a part of the one who provides food?
Its such a pleasure to be baking. Oh no, wait..

I have been summoned, to cook! Okay, fine. How hard is that?
Mum is so good at cooking her fried mee hoon. How the heroin always saves the day with her fried mee hoon during our usual Saturday pot-luck family gathering. Without her fried mee hoon, it will be pot-luck alright, that is if luck can fill up empty stomachs.
I'll help out, most of the time. But I was supervised, closely by Mum. Thinking that I have seen it a million times, and fried a hundred dozen times (how much is that anyway?) of mee hoon, I would obviously be able to do it by now.

On my own, cause mum has got to work on a weekday like this!

Little did I know... Following every step obediently, with the recipe mum had brief me a night before on, and my grandma yabbing all the way beside me. I fight through times when I need to know what's really right. Grandma kept going like.. "oh no, this much that much.", and "do this first then scoop it up".
As I remained focus and still on what I've always done (that few hundred million times).
After frying it halfway, it was tasteless. At that moment, I loss count. I felt like I pour half bottle of soy sauce into the wok, yet it still tasted bland. I kept pouring and pouring (OK, maybe not half a bottle lah).

Finally it met a consistency I was satisfied of.

Mum's Fried Rice Vermicelli Recipe
(Fills at least 10 empty stomachs)

1 1/2 packet of rice vermicelli /mee hoon (600g)
4-5 pieces of fried fish cake, sliced
500g of beansprouts
500g of choy sum

4 large garlic, chopped finely (about a small rice bowl)
5 Tbsp of light soy sauce
1 Tbsp of dark soy sauce
3/4 tsp of sugar
3 cups of water

enough cooking oil

Method:
Heat oil in wok and saute garlic until fragrant. Place in sliced fishcake and cook for 1min. In a separate bowl, combine water, light and dark soy sauce and sugar. Pour it into the wok and let it sit till it starts to bubble.
Place choy sum in and cook for 1-2mins. Place in mee hoon and stir until everything is well mixed. At this point lower down the heat and taste - salty too salty? more soy sauce, no?

After deciding, and getting the taste to perfection, add in bean sprouts and give it a stir.
Don't cook too long or else bean sprouts will not remain crunchy.

Without my heroin to save my day, I made omelette to top up my ugly fried mee hoon.

Apart from that, I made some Agar-Agar Cendol. The first time I ever let coconut milk(santan) into my ingredients. As fragrant as it had ever been, no regrets!

Please keep this a secret. My friends don't know of what a failure I am in cooking.. Shhhh..

Telling people a food blogger like me, cant fry meehoon, felt as disappointing as telling the world that I'm a old granny who can't fry an egg....